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■-.'■> A'- V ".-^ '/ . 



ROGER WILLIAMS 




Statue of Roger Williams in Roger Williams Park, 
Providence, R. I. 



ROGER WILLIAMS 

PROPHET AND PIONEER OF SOUL -LIBERTY 



ARTHUR B. STRICKLAND 




THE JUDSON PRESS 



BOSTON 


CHICAGO 


ST. LOUIS 


NEW YORK 


LOS ANGELES 


KANSAS CITY 

■ 1 • t 


SEATTLE 


TORONTO 



h S 



U ■ V 



Copyright, igig, by 
GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 

Published June, igig 



AUG -5 1919 
©CLA530453 



Aa.V 



X 
^ 



TO 



SYMPATHETIC HELPER 

AND 
INSPIRING COMPANION 

IN ALL MY WORK 
THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY 

INSCRIBED 



BAPTIST SPARKS FROM A HEBREW ANVIL 



" Even the absence of a definite experiment must not deter him. He 
would create a society where the principles would be put to the test. 
He would fashion a State where the Church and the crown would be 
mutually helpful though independent. He would create a condition of 
humanity where the sovereignty of the soul before God would be re- 
spected, and where every man, believer or disbeliever, Gentile, Jew, or 
Turk, would have untrammeled opportunity for the display and exercise 
of the faith within him. Here lies the core of his heroism! " 



e^* fi^* ^^ 

CONCERNING THE MONUMENT AT 
ROGER WILLIAMS PARK 

" This one monument speaks the gratitude of one State. But the whole 
country has an eloquent voice of appreciation. Even as the tombstone of 
Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of St. Paul's Cathedral, intones the 
larger praise when it says, ' \i you would see his monument, look around 
you,' so would we point to the great principles of equal and religious 
freedom, written into the Constitution of forty-eight States, and engraven 
on the minds of ninety millions of people in our countrj- and making their 
moral and civic influence felt all over the civilized globe, as worthy 
tributes to the genius of Roger Williams." 

— Extracts from Thanksgiving Address on "Roger Williams," delivered 
by Rabbi Abram Simon, Ph.D., to Reforined Congregation Kenescth 
Israel, Philadelphia, November 24, 1912. 



PREFACE 



The four years of the great war have witnessed two astounding 
facts, namely, the recrudescence of an ancient barbarism and the 
world-wide application of the ideals of Christianity. During 
these momentous times the frontiers of barbarism and of civiliza- 
tion were clearly marked. The greater part of the world declared 
its position and took sides with one or other of the contestants. 
The whole world was either for or against, either friend or foe 
to, the essential principles of a Christian civilization. 

It was no accident that the torch of the Hun and the Cross 
of the Christ should meet again on the old historic battle-ground 
between the Somme and the Rhine, and especially at the Marne. 
We thank God in victory's hour that the Cross of the Christ is 
again triumphant, and we trust the torch of the Hun is ex- 
tinguished forever. Autocracy's serpent head has been crushed 
beneath the heel of a militant democracy. That bruised heel 
is our reminder of the cost of victory. It staggers the imagina- 
tion to state in terms of manhood, materials, and money the 
price we have paid to make a world safe for democracy. 

The eyes of a world have been opened. Men have thought 
of Calvary, the price the Son of God paid to redeem the way- 
ward, wicked world. Men through their Calvary have come to 
understand the message of Christ's Cross — that all men are of 
equal value in the sight of humanity's God, and therefore are 
entitled to equal privileges in the world he has made for their 
happiness. Out from the shambles of these war-torn years 
there has come forth, slowly and certainly, with ever-increasing 
clearness, the shining form of the ideal supreme, the truth trium- 
phant, the principle of full, free, absolute soul-liberty. 

As the thirsty caravan turns to the springs, as the mariner 
turns to his compass in the darkest night, so the war-weary 
world — all parts of it, both that of friend and that of foe — looks 
beseechingly to America and to the ideal of which she is the 
great exemplar. From her shores there went forth an army 
which under God turned the tide against barbarism and made 



PREFACE 



possible the final victory for civilization. That army was com- 
posed of men whose fathers represented every nation under 
heaven. Some who received the highest honor for distinguished 
service were born under the very flags they sought to overthrow. 
It was humanity's army, dominated by ideals distinctly American, 
which fought, not for military glory, not for hellish hatred, not 
for selfish gain, but as the crusaders of a new order, of an inter- 
national fraternity. 

The distinctive feature of America's greatness is not her bound- 
less wealth, not her limitless resources, not her inimitable ver- 
satility. It is the ideal which she has inherited from her fathers. 
That ideal, in the forefront of the world's thought today, had 
its yesterday of suffering and of sacrifice. 

It is tim.ely in the hour of democracy's triumph to turn our 
thoughts toward the genesis of soul-liberty in America. Today 
millions of men espouse her sacred cause. In the dawn of 
American history, in the early colonial times, a misunderstood, 
maligned, and persecuted refugee, Roger Williams, stood almost 
alone as her defender. Driven from motherland and from adopted 
home, he found among the savages of the wilderness a place 
where he could live out his principles of soul-liberty and grant 
freely to others what he desired for himself. He has been rightly 
called " The First American," because he was the first to actualize 
in a commonwealth the distinctively American principle of free- 
dom for mind and body and soul. 

Roger Williams was not the discoverer of the principle of soul- 
liberty. What Jesus did and said was the torch of truth destined 
to illumine the whole world. His death on the cross was the 
voice of God in eloquent terms, telling us that all men were 
equal sharers in his love and entitled to equal opportunities and 
privileges in the world which he had made for man's well-being. 
Christ taught clearly that men should not force others to belief in 
him or to Christian conduct, nor destroy those who failed to fol- 
low his teachings as they saw them. 

For centuries faithful witnesses kept alive in the world these 
precious truths. In fact, for a millennium the name Anabaptist 
or Baptist was synonymous with soul-liberty. Baptists on the 
Continent and in England sowed broadcast these seeds which led 
to a glorious harvest in the new world. After the death of Ro^-er 



PREFACE XIU 

Williams the Baptists in the colonies continued the work so 
nobly begun by him. In the face of bitterest persecution they 
labored for a century before the much-desired principle of soul- 
liberty was interwoven into our National Constitution and pro- 
tected by the First Amendment. 

Our Western Hemisphere represents two types of civilization. 
The Rio Grande is the dividing line between a civilization which 
is Baptist in its distinctive and essential character and one which 
is non-Baptist. To the north we see what the democracy of the 
soul can do when associated with the democracy of political 
rights. To the south we see but the twilight of civilization, a 
place where there is political democracy in name, but where it is 
rendered powerless because the mind and soul do not enjoy full 
freedom. It is the difference between religious democracy and 
religious autocracy. To the north the Bible is loved, it is studied 
freely, and its principles are followed. It is a land where the 
Bible is unchained and where the prevailing religions are of a 
church without a bishop in a land without a king. To the south 
the Bible is practically suppressed, its study is discouraged, and 
its truths go unheeded. 

Europe, thou art looking across the seas to America. Look 
to all three Americas. Political democracy is universal in North, 
Central, and South America. Ask thyself the question. Why is 
the civilization of the north so attractive ? It is because Religious 
Liberty is married to Political Liberty. Dost thou want our 
blessedness? Then see to it that thy new-born democracies and 
thine ancient ones have complete soul-liberty. Give the Bible a 
chance to bless thy stricken lands. Let the truths from God's 
book do their revolutionary work for thee as they have for God's 
liberty land on this side of the sea. 

Religious liberty has unchained the Bible, scattered the dark- 
ness of superstition, flooded our continent with light and blessing. 
It has toppled selfish autocrats from their thrones, it has unlocked 
the shackles from the feet of millions who were living in spiritual 
and physical slavery. Religious liberty opens the doors and lets 
God's sunlight of truth enter to warm and bless the world. 

To Roger W^illiams and the historic Baptist denomination we 
turn for the story of the genesis and growth of this great bless- 
ing in America. There is an effort, in evidence in the secular 



^IV PREFACE 

and religious press of America, and, in some sections, in many of 
our public schools, to rob both Williams and the Baptists of their 
crown of glory. In certain quarters both Protestants and Catho- 
lics are attributing the honor of giving birth to religious liberty 
to communions which centuries ago persecuted our Baptist fore- 
fathers unto banishment and death. 

The early American Colonies can be divided into three classes. 
One class included those who sought for uniformity in religion. 
Exile and death were resorted to to make that religious ''uni- 
formity possible. Baptists were martyred in Massachusetts and 
Virginia. Another class included those who granted a toleration 
to other Christian religions, but who denied political privileges 
to Jews, infidels, or Unitarians. Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
although far advanced from the persecuting spirit of some of the 
colonies, belong to this second class. There was another class, 
represented at first by the smallest of the colonies, little Baptist 
Rhode Island, which gave full, absolute, religious liberty. No 
political privilege was dependent on religious belief. The atti- 
tude of the early colonists to the Jews is the acid test of their 
claim to priority as the advocates of soul-liberty in America. 

Hebrew scholars and statesmen do not hesitate to give their 
tribute of honor to Roger Williams and the Baptists. The Hon. 
Oscar S. Straus, twice American Ambassador to Turkey, Secre- 
tary of Labor and Commerce in the late President Roosevelt's 
Cabinet, and President of the League to Enforce Peace, said on 
January 13, 1919, on the eve of sailing for Europe and the Peace 
Conference : 

If I were asked to select from all the great men who have left their 
impress upon this continent from the days that the Puritan Pilgrims 
set foot on Plymouth Rock, until the time when only a few days ago 
we laid to rest the greatest American in our generation— Theodore Roose- 
velt; if I were asked whom to hold before the American people and the 
world to typify the American spirit of fairness, of freedom, of liberty 
ui Church and State, I would vdthout any hesitation select that great 
prophet M'ho established the first political community on the basis of a 
free Church in a free State, the great and immortal Roger Williams. 
He became a Baptist, or as they were then called, Anabaptist, because 
to his spirit and ideals the Baptist faith approached nearer than any 
other— a community and a church which is famous for never having 
stained its hands with the blood of persecutors. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

I. The Apostle of Soul-liderty i 

II. The Founding of Providence '27 

III. The Historic Custodians of Soul-licertv 57 

IV'. Soul-liberty at Home in a Commonwealth 79 

V. From Soul-liberty to Absolute Civil Liberty 103 

VI. The Torch-bearers of the Ideal of Roger Williams 

Until Liberty Enlightened the World 119 

VII. The World-wide Influence of Roger Williams' 

Ideal 1 37 

Study Outline of the Life and Times of Roger 

Williams i45 

A Selected Bibliography I49 

An Itinerary for a Historic Pilgrimage 151 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



The author desires to express his indebtedness to the John Carter 
Brown Library, Providence, R. I., to the " Providence Maga- 
zine," to the Rhode Island Historical Society, to the Roger Wil- 
liams Park IVIuseum, and to the New York City Public Library, 
for valuable assistance rendered in securing illustrations for this 
book. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 



Statue of Rui:;cr irilliams Frontispiece 

Copy of Shorthand Found in Indian Bible 4 

Sir Edzcard Coke e 

Charterhouse School o 

"A Key into the Language of America " 12 

Boston, 16^2 J ^ 

The Fort and Chapel on the Hill Where Roger Williams 

Preached i^ 

Pembroke College 17 

Facsimile from Original Records of the Order for the 

Banishment of Roger Williams 20 

Original Church at Salem, Alass 21 

Site of Home of Roger JVilliams in Proridence, R. 1 21 

Sun-dial and Compass Used by Roger JrHliams in His Flight 30 

Spring at the Seeko>ik Settlement 31 

Tablet Marking Seekonk Site 31 

What Cheer Rock. Landing-place of Roger Williams 31 

Original Deed of Providence from the Indians 35 

Williams' Letter of Transference to His Loving Friends 39 

The Original Providence " Compact " 41 

The First Division of Home Lots in Providence 4^, 

" Simplicities Defence " 4-r 

The Arrival of Roger IVilliarns zcith the Charter 4(; 

" Mr. Cottons Letter Lately Printed " 52 

" The Bloudy Tenent, . . discussed " 53 

Roger Jl'illiams' Reference to "An Humble Supplication" 

in His " Bloudy Tenent " c^ 

" Christenings make not Christians " 63 

First Baptist Church of Providence 65 

Roger Mozvry's " Ordinarie." Built id^jj, Demolished 1900. 65 



XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Pace 

Interior of First Baptist Church, Providence 69 

Bell of First Baptist Church, Providenee 73 

" The Fourth Paper, . . by Maior Butler " 82 

" The Bloudy Tcnent, Washed " 84 

" The Bloody Tcnent yet Adore Bloody " 85 

" The Hireling Ministry " 87 

'' Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health " 88 

" George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrozves " 90 

Models of Indian Village in Roger Williams Park Museum. 91 

" A Nezv-England Fire-Brand Quenched " 94 

Rhode Island Historical Society Museum 95 

Apple Tree Root from the Grave of Roger Williams 95 

Grave of Roger Williams 95 

Neiv Testament Title-page of Roger Williams Indian Bible . 98 
Indian Bible Used by Roger Williams, the Pioneer Mission- 
ary to the American Indians 99 

Original Home of Brown University, in Providence, R. /.. . 109 

Broivn University in Early Nineteenth Century 109 

Capitol Building in Providence, Where the Charter is Kept. . 113 
City Hall, Providence, Where the Compact, Indian Deed, and 

Letter of Transference Are Kept 113 

Order Banishing the Founders of the First Baptist Church 

in Boston 123 

" III Nezt'es from Nezv-England " 125 

John Clarke Memorial, First Baptist Church of Nezvport, R. I. 127 

Grave of John Clarke 127 

The Lazv in William Penn's Colony 129 

The Lazv Concerning Religious Toleration in Maryland 

Colony 130 

Puritan-Religious-Liberty! 131 

William Rogers I33 

James Manning I33 

Isaac Backus I33 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY 



That body-killing, soul-killing, state-killing doctrine of not permitting 
but persecuting all other consciences and ways of worship but his own in 
the civil state. . . Whole nations and generations of men have been 
forced (though unregenerate and unrepentant) to pretend and assume 
the name of Jesus Christ, which only belongs, according to the institu- 
tion of the Lord Jesus, to truly regenerate and repentant souls. Secondly, 
that all others dissenting from them, whether Jews or Gentiles, their coun- 
trymen especially (for strangers have a liberty), have not been permitted 
civil habitation in this world with them, but have been distressed and 
persecuted by them. — Roger ]ViUiams' Estimate of Religious Persecution. 

The principle of religious liberty did not assert itself, save in one 
instance, at once that American colonization was begun. For the most 
part, the founders of these colonies came to this country imbued with 
the ideas concerning the relations between government and religion, which 
had been universal in Europe. . . This makes the attitude of our Amer- 
ican exception, Roger Williams, the more striking and significant. More 
than one hundred years in advance of his time, he denied the entire 
theory and practice of the past. — Sanford Cobb. 

Roger Williams advocated the complete separation of Church and 
State, at a time when there was no historical example of such separation. — 
Ncztniian. 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY 



AGO\'ERNMENT of the people, formed by the people for 
the people, with Church and State completely separate, 
and with political privileges not dependent on religious 
belief, was organized and maintained successfully for the first 
time in Christendom in Rhode Island, the smallest of the Amer- 
ican Colonies. Its inspiration and founder was Roger Williams, 
the apostle of soul-liberty. Because he was the first asserter of 
the principle which has since been recognized as the distinctive 
character of our national greatness, he has been called " The 
First American." 

Little is known of the personal appearance of Roger Williams. 
His contemporaries describe him as a man of " no ordinary 
parts," with " a never-failing sweetness of temper and unques- 
tioned piety."' They also said he was a man of " unyielding 
tenacity of purpose, a man who could grasp a principle in all its 
bearings and who could incorporate it in a social compact." 
" He was no crude, unlearned agitator, but a scholar and thinker." 
Governor Bradford speaks of him as " having many precious 
parts." Governor Winthrop refers to him as " a godly minister." 
The artist's conception, based upon these characteristics, is 
best expressed by a monument in Roger Williams Park, Provi- 
dence, R. I, It is the work of Franklin Simmons, and was erected 
by the city of Providence in 1877. In a beautiful park of over 
four hundred acres with hills and drives and lakes, surrounded 
by trees and shrubbery, and on land originally purchased from 
the Indians by Williams, the illustrious pioneer of a new order 
is seen in heroic form. He seems to be looking out over the 
very colony he formed. In his hand he holds a volume, entitled 
" Soul-Liberty, 1636," a title which has since become synonymous 
with his name. History is seen writing " 1636," the birth year 
of soul-liberty in America. She continues to write with increasing 
appreciation of the far-reaching influence of this illustrious hero 
of religious and political democracy. 

3 



4 ROGER WILLIAMS 

For many years scholars thoug-ht that Roger WilHams was 
born at the close of the sixteenth century at Gwinear, Cornwall. 
England. Now it is generally believed that he was born in Lon- 
don, England, in the opening years of the seventeenth century. 
He had two brothers and a sister. His father was a tailor. 
About this time Timothy Bright and Peter Bales introduced into 
England a new method of writing which was called " shorthand." 
The boy Roger Williams learned it and visited the famous Star 
Chamber to put it into practice. The judge noticed the lad and 
inspected his work. To his amazement, the record was com- 






I -sJ/K rHi-JU,*^* 



-f'^dZ '^"■■^' 



Q^-H-^ia^- 






Copy of Shorthand Found on Fly-leaf of Roger Williams' 
Indian Bible 



plete and accurate. This judge, Sir Edward Coke, the most 
distinguished lawyer and jurist of his day, immediately took an 
interest in the lad, and became his patron, securing for Williams 
admission to the Charterhouse School. This was the school 
where John Wesley, Thackeray, Addison, and others were edu- 
cated. He was admitted as a pensioner, in June, 1621. Later, 
through Coke's influence, he was admitted to Pembroke College, 
Cambridge, in June, 1623. He was graduated with the degree 
of bachelor of arts in 1627, and the year following was admitted 
to holy orders. About this time he was disappointed in a love 
affair, the lady of his choice being Jane Whalley. He sought 
permission of her aunt, Lady Barrington, to marry her. When 




Sir Edward Coke 

Courtesy of " Providence Magazine " 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY J 

refused, he wrote a striking letter in which he predicted for 
Lady Harrington a very unhappy hereafter unless she repented. 
In 1629, we find him at High Laves, Essex, not far from 
Chelmesford. where Thomas Hooker, later the founder of Hart- 
ford Colony, was minister. Here he also met John Cotton. 
Men's views at that time were changing. The people of the 
Established Church were divided into three classes. One stood 
by the Established Order in all things ; another class of Puritans 
sought to stay by the Church, but aimed to purify the movement; 
the third class was for absolute separation. Williams, with 
hundreds of others, was disturbed. The anger of Lady Har- 
rington and the suspicions of Archbishop Laud started a per- 
secution which drove him out of England. He said : 

I was persecuted in and out of my father's house. Truly it was 
as bitter as death to me when Bisliop Laud pursued me out of the land, 
and my conscience was persuaded against the national church, and cere- 
monies and bishops ... I say, it was as bitter as death to me when 
I rode Windsor way to take ship at Bristol. 

Many years later he wrote : 

He (God) knows what gains and preferments I have refused in uni- 
versities, city, country, and court in old England, and something in New 
England, to keep my soul undefiled in this point and not to act with a 
doubting conscience. 

Before leaving England, he was married. The only information 
we have in regard to his wife, up to that time, is that her name 
was Mary Warned. They sailed on the ship Lyon, from Bristol, 
England, December i, 1630. After a tempestuous journey of 
sixty-six days they arrived ofif Nantasket, February 5, 163 1. 
Judge Durfee speaks thus of this flight: 

He was obliged to fly or dissemble his convictions, and for him, as 
for all noblest natures, a life of transparent truthfulness was alone an 
instinct and a necessity. This absolute sincerity is the key to his char- 
acter, as it was always the mainspring of his conduct. It was this 
which led him to reject indignantly the compromises with his conscience 
which from time to time were proposed to him. It was this which im- 
pelled him when he discovered a truth to proclaim it, when he detected 
an error to expose it, when he saw an evil, to try and remedy it, and 
when he could do a good, even to his enemies, to do it. 



8 ROGER WILLIAMS 

Upon his arrival in Boston he was invited to become the teacher 
in the Boston church, succeeding Mr. Wilson who was about 
to return to England. To his surprise, he discovered that the 
Boston church was a church unseparated from the Established 
Church of England, and he felt conscientiously bound to decline 
their invitation. The Boston people, who believed their church 
to be the " most glorious on earth," were astonished at his re- 
fusal. Williams would not act as their teacher unless they pub- 
licly repented of their relation to the Established Order. It 
was perfectly natural that a soul with convictions, such as Wil- 
liams possessed, should desire to be absolutely separated from 
the Established Order. One incident from many will show the 
spirit of the Established Church in England toward those within 
its ranks who had become Puritan, let alone Separatist. Neal, in 
his " History of the Puritans," tells of Doctor Leighton's perse- 
cution in England. He was arrested by Archbishop Laud and 
the following sentence was passed upon him : That he be 

committed to the prison of the Fleet for Hfe, and pay a fine of ten thou- 
sand pounds ; that the High Commission should degrade him from his 
ministry, and that he should be brought to the pillory at Westminster, 
while the court was sitting and be publicly whipped; after whipping be 
set upon the pillory a convenient time, and have one of his ears cut off, 
one side of his nose split, and be branded in the face with a double S. S. 
for a sower of sedition : that then he should be carried back to prison, 
and after a few da^-s be pilloryed a second time in Cheapside, and have 
the other side of his nose split, and his other ear cut off and then be 
shut up in close prison for the rest of his life. 

In the district in which Roger Williams lived this sentence was 
carried out in all its hellish cruelty just prior to Williams' 
banishment from England. Do we blame the exile Williams 
for repudiating the movement which at that hour was so wicked 
in its persecutions? He meant to have a sea between him and 
a thing so hateful. John Cotton said that Williams looked upon 
himself as one who " had received a clearer illumination and 
apprehension of the state of Christ's kingdom, and of the purity 
of church communion, than all Christendom besides." Cotton 
Mather said that Williams had " a windmill in his head." Well 
for America that such a windmill was there and that he was a 
prophet with clear visions of truth. 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY II 

After refusing the Boston church, Roger Williams was in- 
vited by the Salem church to be assistant to Mr. Skelton, their 
aged teacher. He accepted their invitation and became Teacher. 
April 12, 163 1. The General Court in Boston remonstrated with 
the Salem church. The persecution of this court led doubtless 
to his retirement from Salem at the close of that summer. 

He left the Massachusetts Bay Colony and became assistant 
to Ralph Smith, the- pastor at Plymouth. The Plymouth people, 
being strict Separatists, were more congenial company, since 
they had withdrawn from the Established Order to form a church 
after the pattern of the Primitive Qiurch niodel. Williams re- 
mained in Plymouth for about two years. Governor Bradford 
soon detected his advanced positions, relative to separation of 
Church and State, but considered it " questionable judgment." 
He praised his qualities as a minister, writing thus of him : 

His teaching, well approved, for ye benefit whereof I still bless God, 
and am thankful to him, even for his sharpest admonitions and reproofs, 
so far as they agreed with truth. 

Governor \\'inthrop, with Mr. W^ilson, teacher of the Boston 
church, visited Plymouth at this time. 

They were very kindly treated and feasted everj' day at several houses. 
On the Lord's Da_\-, there was a sacrament which they did partake in ; 
and, in the afternoon, Mr. Roger W^illiams (according to their custom) 
propounded a question, to which the Pastor, ^Ir. Smith, spoke briefly ; 
then Mr. Williams prophesied ; and after the Governor of Plymouth 
spoke to the question. Then the elder (Mr. William Brewster) desired 
the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they 
did. When this was ended, the deacon,. Afr. Fuller, put the congregation 
in mind of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the Governor and all 
the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box and then 
returned. 

W'illiams came in contact with the Indians who visited Plymouth 
from time to time, and gained the confidence of Massasoit, the 
father of the famous Philip. He studied their language and 
cultivated their friendship. He writes in one of his letters, 
" My soul's desire was to do the natives good ! " Near the 
close of his life he referred to this early experience: " God was 
pleased to give me a painful patient spirit, to lodge with them 




A Key into the 

LANGUAGE 

O F 

AMERICA' 

An help to the Laniuage of the Natives 

in chac part of A m e r i c A, called 

NEfV-ENG L AND, 

Together, with brfefe Olffervatiom of the Cu- 

ftomes, Manners and Worlliips, &c. of the 

aforeliid '^\atiV(s, jn Peace and Warrc, 

in Life and Death. 

On all which are added Spirituall Obfervatwnt^ 
Generall and Particular by the tyf^thour, of 

chicfe and ipeciall ufc(upon all occafions Jto 

all the EngliJI^ Inhabicingthofe parts ; 

yet pleafant^nd profitable to 

the view of all men : 



BT ROGER WILLIAMS 

oi Tro'^idence in ^e"fl'-E»^l<i/;f/. 

Printed by Gregory 1>ei<ttri i>4j. • » 




Boston, 1632 

From an old print 




The Fort and Chapel on the Hill Where Roger Williams Preached 

Used by permission of A. S. Burbank, Plymouth, Mass. 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY 1 5 

in their filthy smoke, to gain their tongue." Surely the Provi- 
dence of God was thus preparing the way for the founding of a 
new colony, to be made possible through these very Indians who 
had implicit confidence in this man of God. 

Williams was Pauline in his self-supporting ministry. He 
wrote : " At Plymouth I spake on the Lord's Day and week days 
and worked hard at my hoe for my bread (and so afterward at 
Salem until I found them to be an unseparated people)." His 
ministry made friends and foes. His foes feared he would run 
the same course of Anabaptist behavior as did John Smith, the 
Se-Baptist, at Amsterdam. Early in August his first child was 
born, and was named Mary after her mother. Later in the same 
month, he became for a second time the assistant to Mr. Skelton. 
at Salem. A number of choice spirits, who had been attracted 
to his ministry, went with him. He requested a letter of dis- 
mission from the Plymouth church to unite with the Salem 
church. This was granted, but with a caution as to his ad- 
vanced views. To advocate the separation of Church and State 
placed a man at that time with the " Anabaptists," as this was 
considered their great distinctive doctrine. 

He commenced his labors at Salem under this cloud and also 
with the General Court in Boston very suspicious of his work. 
Already there was the distant rumbling of a storm which would 
eventually drive him into exile. 

The ministers of the Bay Colony, from the churches of Boston, 
Newtowne (Cambridge), Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, 
Salem, and elsewhere, were accustomed to meet for discussion 
and common interest. Roger Williams feared that this might lead 
to a presbytery or superintendency, to the prejudice of local 
church liberty. He loathed everything which might make for 
intolerance. 

In December, 1633, he forwarded to the governor and his 
assistants a document which he had prepared at Plymouth, in 
which he disputed their right to have the land by the king's grant. 
Williams claimed, " they have no title except they compounded 
with the natives." He also accused King James of telling a lie 
in claiming to be " the first Christian prince to discover this 
new land." This treatise had never been published or made 
public. Its appearance now terrified the governor and the assis- 



l6 ROGER WILLIAMS 

tants, for at that very time they were holding the possession to 
their colony on a charter originally given for a different purpose. 
It had been granted in England to a trading company, and its 
transfer was questionable. They feared the king might with- 
draw it. This treatise of Williams would be considered treason 
by the king. They met on December twenty-seventh and coun- 
seled with Williams. Seeing the grave danger to the colony, he 
agreed to give evidence of loyalty. Today we do not question 
the ethical correctness of the advanced position held by Williams. 

It was not long before this pioneer of soul-liberty raised a new 
question concerning " the propriety of administering an oath, 
which is an act of worship, to either the unwilling or the unre- 
generate." Williams' position was peculiarly obnoxious to the 
magistrates who were then on the point of testing the loyalty 
of the colonists by administering an oath of allegiance which was 
to be, in reality, allegiance to the colony instead of to the king. 
The Court was called to discuss the new objection to its policy. 
Mr. Cotton informs us that the position was so well defended 
by Williams that " it threatened the court with serious em- 
barrassment." The people supported Williams' position, and 
the court was compelled to desist. On the death of Skelton, in 
August, 1634, the Salem church installed Roger Williams as their 
teacher. This act gave great offense to the General Court in 
Boston. Williams commenced anew his agitation against the 
right to own land by the king's patent. The Salem church and 
Williams were both cited to appear before the General Court, 
July 18, 1635, to answer complaints made against them. 

The elders gave their opinion : 

He who would obstinately maintain such opinions (whereby a church 
might run into heresy, apostasy, or tyranny, and yet the civil Magistrates 
may not intermeddle) ought to be removed, and that the other churches 
ought to request the Magistrates so to do. 

The church and the pastor were notified " to consider the matter 
until the next General Court, and then to recant, or expect the 
court to take some final action." At this same court, the Salem 
people petitioned for a title to some land at Marblehead Neck, 
which was theirs, as they believed, by a just claim. The court 
refused even to consider this claim, " until there shall be time 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY I9 

to test more fully the quality of your allegiance to the power 
which you desire should be interposed on your behalf." Pro- 
fessor Knowles says : 

Here is a candid avowal that justice was refused to Salem, on the 
question of civil right, as a punishment for the conduct of church and 
pastor. A volume could not more forcibly illustrate the danger of a 
connection between the civil and ecclesiastical power. 

Teacher and people at Salem were indignant, and a letter 
was addressed to the churches of the colony in protest against 
such injustice. The churches were asked to admonish the magis- 
trates and deputies within their membership. These churches 
refused or neglected to do this. In some cases the letters never 
came before the church. Williams then called on his own church 
to withdraw communion with such churches. It declined to 
do this, and he withdrew from the Salem church, preaching his 
last sermon, August 19, 1635. Here was a repetition of the 
first conflict. Straus writes : 

Here stood the one church already condemned, with sentence suspended 
over it. Against it were arrayed the aggregate power of the colony — its 
nine churches, the priests, and the magistrates. What could the Salem 
church and community do, threatened with disfranchisement, its deputies 
excluded from the General Court, and its petition for land to which it 
was entitled, denied? Dragooned into submission it had to abandon its 
persecuted minister to struggle alone against the united power of Church 
and State. To deny Williams the merit of devotion to a principle in 
this contest, wherein there was no alternative but retraction or banish- 
ment, is to belie history in order to justify bigotry, and to convert mar- 
tyrdom into wrong-headed obstinacy. This is exactly what Cotton sought 
to do in his version of the controversy given ten years later in order to 
vindicate himself and his church brethren from the stigma of their acts in 
the eyes of a more enlightened public opinion in England. Williams pur- 
sued no half-hearted or half-way measures. He stood unshaken upon the 
firm ground of his convictions, and declared to the Salem church that he 
could no longer commune with them, thereby entirely separating himself 
from them and them from him. 

He went so far as to refuse to commune with his own wife in 
the new commimion which he formed in his own home, until she 
would completely withdraw from the Salem church. 

The time for the next General Court drew near. The Salem 
church letter and Williams' withdrawal from his church made 



20 ROGER WILLIAMS 

his foes determined to crush him. They had thoughts of putting- 
him to death. 

The General Court convened in the rude meeting-house of the 
church in Newtowne (Camhridge), on the corner of Dunster 
and ^lill Streets. Wilhams maintained his positions. He was 
asked if he desired a month to reflect and then come and argue 
the matter before them. He dechned, choosing '* to dispute pres- 
ently." Thomas Hooker, minister at Newtowne, was appointed 
to argue with him on the spot, to make him see his errors. 










^rXj^- 



:«i««v 



-iiKL^ 



I635. Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church of Salem, bath broached and divulged dyvers newe 
3rd Sept. and dangerous opinions against the aucthorite of magistrates, as ai^o with others of defamcon, both of the magistrates 
and churches here, and that before any conviccon, and yet maintaineth the same without retraccon, it is therefore 
ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shall depte out of this jurisdiccon within sixe weekes nowe nexte ensueing, wch 
if hee neglectto pforme, it shall be lawfull for the Gouv'r and two of the magistrates to send him to some place out 
of this jurisdiccon, not to returne any more without licence from the Court. 

Fac-simile from Original Records of the Order for the Banishment 
of Roger Williams 

Williams' positions had a " rockie strength " and he was ready, 
" not only to be bound and banished, but to die also in New 
England ; as for the most holy truths of God in Christ Jesus." 
He would not recant. So the Court met the following- day, 
Friday, October 9, 1635, and passed the following sentence: 

Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church of Salem, 
hath broached and divulged dyvers newe and dangerous opinions against 
the aucthorite of magistrates, as also with letters of defamcon, both of the 
magistrates and churches here, and that before any conviccon, and yet 
maintaineth the same without retraccon. 




Original Church at Salem, Mass. 




Site of Home of Roger Williams in Providence, R. I. 



THE APOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY 27, 

it is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shall depte out of this 
jurisdiccon within sixe weekes nowe nexte ensueing, wch if hee neglect to 
pforme, it shall be lawfull for the Gouv'r and two of the magistrates to 
send him to some place out of this jurisdiccon, not to returne any more 
without licence from the Court. 

Although WiUiams had withdrawn from the church at Salem, 
yet his character was such that the town was indignant at this 
decree of the court. About this time, his second child was born. 
Like the prophets of old, he gave the child a significant name, call- 
ing her " Freeborn." Mr. Williams' health at this time was far 
from being robust. A stay of sentence was therefore granted, 
and he was to be allowed to remain until the following spring. 
He did not refrain from advocating his opinions, and soon the 
authorities heard of meetings in his house at Salem and of twenty 
who were prepared to go with him to found a new colony at the 
head of the Narragansett Bay. At its January meeting, the Court 
decided to send him to England at once in a ship then about to 
return. He was cited to appear in Boston, but reported inability 
due to his impaired health. They then sent a pinnace for him 
by sea. Being forewarned, he fled to the wilderness in the depths 
of which, for fourteen weeks, he suffered the hardships of a New 
England winter. 

The original Roger Williams Church is still preserved at 
Salem. The first church in the first town of the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony was at the corner of Washington and Essex Streets. 
There is a brick structure there now and a marble tablet marks 
it as the site of the first church in the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
On another tablet, is the inscription : 

The frame of the first Meeting House in which the civil affairs of the 
Colony were transacted, is preserved and now stands in the rear of Plum- 
mer Hall. 

Plummer Hall is on Essex Street not very far from the First 
Church. In the rear is the Roger Williams Church, a small build- 
ing, measuring twenty feet long by seventeen wide by twelve high 
at its posts. Originally it had a gallery over the door at the 
entrance and a minister's seat in the opposite corner. On the 



24 ROGER WILLIAMS 

wall Opposite to the entrance is a list of its succession of pastors 
and the years of their service : 

Francis Hig-g-inson 1629- 1630 

Samuel Skelton 1629-1634 

Roger Williams 1631-1635 

Hugh Peters 1636-1641 etc., etc. 

It could accommodate about one hundred people. There were 
only forty families in Salem in 1632. There were only six 
houses, besides that of Governor Endicott, when Higginson ar- 
rived in 1629. Here in this ancient meeting-house Roger Wil- 
liams preached those truths which led to his banishment. From 
its pulpit came, clearly stated, the ideals that millions have since 
accepted. The glory of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, or the 
Royal Sancte Chapella, of Paris, can never equal the glory 
of this crude edifice, the cradle of religious liberty in the New 
World. 

The Roger Williams Home at Salem is still preserved. It 
is better known as " the Witch House " because it was occupied 
by Judge Carwin, one of the judges connected with the tragedy 
of 1692. It stands at the western corner of Essex and North 
Streets. It was built by the founder of Rhode Island and was 
at that time second only to the Governor's home. Though it has 
been altered and repaired, the original rooms in this building 
are as follows: The eastern room on the first floor, 18 x 21J/, 
and the room directly over it, 20 x 21^ ; the western room on 
the first floor, 16^ x 18, and the room over it, 16^ x 20. The 
chimney is 8 x 12. The part of the house which retains its 
original appearance is the projecting corner of the western part, 
fronting on Essex Street. Roger Williams mortgaged this house, 
" for supplies," to establish the colony at Providence. 

Mr. Upham, in his report to the Essex Institution, says of 
this wonderful house : 

Here, ^\^thin these very walls, lived, tvvo hundred and fifty years ago, 
that remarkable and truly heroic man, who, in his devotion to the prin- 
ciple of free conscience, and liberty of belief, untrammelcd by civil power, 
penetrated in midwinter in the depths of an unknown wilderness to seek 
a new home, a home which he could find only among savages, whose 



THE ArOSTLE OF SOUL-LIBERTY 25 

respect for the benevolence and truthfulness of his character made them, 
then and ever afterward, his constant friends. From this spacious and 
pleasant mansion, he fled through the deep snows of a New England 
forest, leaving his wife and young children to the care of Providence, 
whose silent "voice" through the conscience, was his only support and 
guide. The State which he founded may ever look back with a just 
pride upon the history of Roger Williams. 



II 

THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE 



A community on the unheard-of principles of absohite rehgious hberty 
combined with perfect civil democracy. — Professor Mason. 

Thus for the first time in history a form of government was adopted 
which drew a clear and unmistakable line between the temporal and the 
spiritual power, and a community came into being which was an anomaly 
among the nations. — Prof. J. L. Diiiian. 

No one principle of political or social or religious policy lies nearer the 
base of American institutions and has done more to shape our career 
than this principle inherited from Rhode Island, and it may be asserted 
that the future of America was in a large measure determined by that 
General Court which summoned Roger Williams to answer for " divers 
new and dangerous opinions," and his banishment became a pivotal act 
in universal history.— Frt^/. Alonzo IVilliams. 

In summing up the history of the struggle for religious liberty it may 
be said that papal bulls and Protestant creeds have favored tyranny. 
Theologians of the sixteenth century and philosophers of the seventeenth, 
Descartes, Spinoza, and Hobbes, favored the State churches. It was 
bitter experience of persecution that led jurists, and statesmen of Holland 
and France, in face of the opposition of theologians and philosophers, to 
enforce the toleration of dissent. While there was toleration in Holland 
and France, there was, for the first time, in the history of the world in 
any commonwealth, liberty and equality and separation of Church and 
State in Rhode Island. — W. W. Evarts, in " The Long Road to Freedom 
of Worship." 

In the code of laws established by them, we read for the first time since 
Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars, the declaration that con- 
science should be free and men should not be punished for worshiping 
God in the way they were persuaded he requires. — Judge Story. 



THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE 

ROGER WILLIA:\IS left Salem on or about January 15. 
1636, making- the journey alone through the forests. With 
■ a pocket compass, and a sun-dial to tell the hours, he set 
out, probably taking the road to Boston for some distance. 
Nearing Boston, presumably at Saugus, he went west for a while 
and then straight south until he reached the home of ]\Iassasoit, 
the Wampanoag sachem, at Alount Hope, near Bristol. The 
ground was covered with snow, and he must have suffered sorely 
on this journey of eighty or ninety miles. Thirty-five years 
later in a letter to Major Mason, he refers to this experience: 

First, when I was unkindly and unchristianly, as I believe, driven from 
my house and land, and wife and children (in the midst of a New 
England winter, now about thirty-five years past), at Salem, that ever- 
honored Governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote me to steer my course 
to Narragansett Bay and the Indians, for many high and public ends, 
encouraging me, from the freeness of the place from any English claims 
or patents. I took his prudent notion as a hint and voice from God, and 
waving all other thoughts and notions, I steered my course from Salem 
(though in winter snow, which I feel yet) unto those parts wherein I 
may say " Peniel " ; that is, I have seen the face of God. 

He also wrote : " I was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks, 
in a bitter winter season, not knowing* what bread or bed did 
mean ! " In his old age he exclaimed, " I bear to this day in my 
body the effects of that winter's exposure." In one of his books 
he refers to " hardships of sea and land in a banished condition." 

The precious relics of this flight are the sun-dial and compass, 
now in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society. 

Williams finally reached Seekonk Cove, about the twenty- 
third of April. The spot was at Manton's Neck, near the cove, 
where there was a good spring of water. Here he was joined by 
four companions, his wife, and two children. " I gave leave to 
William' Harris, then poor and destitute," said Williams, " to 
come along in my company. I consented to John Smith, miller 
D 29 



30 



ROGER WILLIAMS 



at Dorchester (banished also), to go witli me, and, at John 
Smith's desire, to a poor young- fellow, Francis Wickes, as also 
a lad of Richard Waterman's." The latter was doubtless Thomas 
Angell. Joshua Verein came later. Some historians think that 
others joined them at the Seekonk before they were compelled 
to leave. Here they remained for two months. After providing- 
rude shelters and sowing seeds, they received a warning to move 
on. " I received a letter," said Williams, 

from my ancient friend, Mr. Winslow, the Governor of Plymonth, pro- 
fessing his own and others' love for me, yet lovingly advising me, since 
I was fallen into the edge of their bounds, and they were loathe to 
displease the Baj^ to remove to the other side of the water, and there, 
he said, I had the country free before me, and might be free as them- 
selves, and we should be loving neighbors together. 




Sun-dial and Compass Used by Roger Williams in His Flight 

Courtesy of " Providence Magazine " 

His removal cost him the " loss of a harvest that year." His- 
torians are agreed that about the end of June he left Seekonk. 
The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was celebrated, June 
23 and 24. 1886. Embarking in a crude Indian canoe, Williams 
and his companions, six in all, crossed over the river to a little 
cove on the west side, where they were halted by a party of 
Indians, with the friendly interrogation, "What cheer?" Here 
the party landed on a rock which has been known ever since as 
" What Cheer Rock." The cove is now filled and the rock cov- 








fWfi" 



Spring at the Seekonk Settlement Tablet Marking Seekonk Site 




What Cheer Rock. Landing-place of Roger Williams 



THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE 33 

ered from sight. A suitable monument has been erected over the 
rock. It is in an open park space at the corner of Roger and 
WiUiams Streets, Providence. A piece of this rock is preserved 
at the First Baptist Church of Providence, and another has re- 
cently been placed in cross form in the lobby floor of the new 
Central Baptist Church of the same city. It is hoped that a piece 
of this rock will be worked into the National Baptist Memorial 
in our country's capital. 

After friendly salutations with the Indians, they reembarked 
and made their way down the river around the headland of 
Tockwotten and past Indian and Fox points, where they reached 
the mouth of the Moshassuck River. Rowing up this beautiful 
stream, then bordered on either side with a dense forest, they 
landed on the east side of the river, where there was an inviting 
spring. Here, on the ascending slopes of the hill, they com- 
menced a new settlement, which Williams called " Providence," 
in gratitude to God's merciful Providence to them in their dis- 
tress. Later, when they spread out in larger numbers and in 
all directions from this place, it was called " Providence Planta- 
tions." They prepared shelters for their families, probably wig- 
wams made of poles covered with hemloclo boughs and forest 
leaves. We can in imagination see them climb the hill to a 
point where Prospect Street now runs, to enjoy a wider view of 
their new territory. 

From that height of almost two hundred feet they saw to the 
westward, through openings in the forest, the cove at the head 
of the great salt river with broad sandy beaches on the eastern 
and northern shores and salt marshes bordering the western 
and southern. From the north the sparkling waters of the 
Moshassuck River came leaping over the falls as it emptied itself 
into the estuary at its mouth. Bordering this stream was a 
valley of beauty and fertility. The clear waters of the Woonas- 
quatucket threaded their way from the west through another 
fertile valley. Between these rivers and also southward (of the 
Woonasquatucket) was a sandy plateau, covered with pine forests 
stretching to the Indian town of Mashapaug on the southwest 
and Pawtuxet Valley to the south. Between the edge of the tidal 
flow and the open waters of the great salt river there was a 
salt marsh dotted with islands, beyond which rose the bold peak 



34 ROGER WILLIAMS 

of Weybosset Hill. Down the river to the south they saw the 
steep hills of Sassafras and Field's Point, beyond which could 
be seen the lower bay and its forest-covered shores and islands. 
The eastern slope of the hill stretched a mile toward the shore 
of the Seekonk. To the northeast the view was cut off by a 
higher eminence covered with oak and pine. In all directions, 
save that of the bay itself, the farther distances were lost in an 
indistinguishable maze of forest-crowned heights. At the feet 
of the spectators was the place of their immediate settlement, 
where the western slope of the hill gradually diminished in 
height toward the south. At its lowest extremity, Fox Point 
projected into the bay. This slope was covered with a growth 
of oak and hickory. 

A Purchased Possession 

Roger Williams differed from the ordinary colonists of his age, 
who held that the Indian, being heathen, had no real ownership 
of the land. It belonged to the Christians who might first 
claim it by right of discovery. Williams, who " always aimed to 
do the Indians only good," recognized Indian ownership and 
secured his colony from them by purchase. Here among them 
he first sought to apply his doctrine of soul-liberty. To him they 
were humans with equal rights and privileges. He bitterly 
fought the Puritan position that the pagan heathen had no prop- 
erty rights which the Christian, with his superior culture, was 
bound to respect. Roger Williams insisted that the land should 
be purchased from the Indians, the original owners. He gained 
the lasting respect of the Indian and the undying animosity of 
the Puritan for holding to ideals which have since come to be 
recognized as American. He thus laid the foundation for the 
belief in America that the weaker and smaller powers have rights 
which the greater powers must respect, a belief which led us into 
the recent great war. While this principle is receiving world- 
wide application, let us not forget that Roger Williams was the 
pioneer of international justice in America, if not in the wor|/d. 
The land viewed froni the top of the hill was owned by five 
distinct Indian tribes. The Narragansetts dominated over all the 
lands now occupied by Rhode Island, and ruled over all other 
lesser tribes in this territory. In the northern part of this State, 






/', ii<^ ?ii>i<. 1)1 1. <«/ <.< " /i^, f 



a.M •'•-nnS: 



'•/^7^"«^ -'^w*-' ^rwf^''^ :eHi-S!^jJ i^-^-c>j'-/ir^J 



I f" 









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Original Deed of Providence from the Indians 






THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE ^^y 

the Niptnucs lived in the place now occupied by Smithfield, 
Glocester, and Burrilville. On the southern seacoast border 
dwelt the Niantics. Part of the Wampanoag tribe dwelt in 
Cumberland and extended to the western side of the river which 
we now call the Blackstone. The Pequots lived in Connecticut 
Colony. Indian government was monarchial, and became extinct 
with the slaughter of the last of the line of rulers or sachems 
in the massacre of July 2, 1676. Canonicus was the ruling sachem 
when the English first came. As he grew old he needed an 
assistant and his nephew, Miantonomo, was appointed. Mian- 
tonomo worked well with the elder chief. He never succeeded 
to the position of ruling chief, being murdered in 1643. Roger 
Williams secured his land from these sachems. Williams wrote 
in 1 66 1 as follows : 

I was the procurer of the purchase, not by monies, nor payments, the 
natives being so shy and jealous, that monies could not do it, but by that 
language, acquaintance, and favor with the natives and other advantages 
which it pleased God to give me, and also bore the charges and venture 
of all the gratuities which I gave to the great Sachems and natives 
round about us, and lay engaged for a loving and peaceable neighborhood 
with, to my great charge and travel. 

He found Indian gifts very costly. Presents were made fre- 
quently. He allowed the Indians to use his pinnace and shallop 
at command, transporting and lodging fifty at his home at a 
time. He never denied them any lawful thing. Canonicus had 
freely what he desired from Roger Williams' trading-post at 
Narragansett. William Harris stated in 1677 that Roger Wil- 
liams had paid thus one hundred and sixty pounds ($800) for 
Providence and Pawtucket. 

Mr. Williams generously admitted the first twelve proprietors 
of the Providence Purchase to an equal share with himself, with- 
out exacting any remuneration. The thirty pounds which he 
received were paid by succeeding settlers, at the rate of thirty 
shillings each. This was not a payment for the land but what 
he called '' a loving gratuity." Straus says : 

He might have been like William Penn, the proprietor of his colony, 
after having secured it by patent from the rulers in England, and thus 
have exercised a control over its government and enriched himself and 



38 ROGER WILLIAMS 

family. But this was not his purpose, nor was it directly or remotely 
the cause for which he suffered banishment and misery. Principle — not 
profit ; liberty — not pow'er ; conviction — not ambition, were his impelling 
motives which he consistently maintained, theoretically and practically 
then, and at all times. 

Williams" own words were : 

I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience. 
I then considering the conditions of divers of my distressed countrj-men, 
I communicated my said purchase unto my loving friends (whom he 
names) who desired to take shelter with me. 

He afterward purchased, jointly with Governor Winthrop, the 
Island of Prudence from Canonicus. He also purchased, a little 
later, the small islands of Patience and Hope, afterward selling 
his interest in them to help pay his expenses to England on 
business for the colony. 

Following is a true copy of the Original Deed of Land for 
•Providence from Canonicus and Mianfononio: 

At Nanhiggansick, the 24tli of the first month, commonly called March, 
in the second year of the Plantations of Plantings at Alooshausick or 
Providence. Memorandum that we Caunaunicus and Meauntunomo, the 
two chief sachems of Nanhiggansick, having two years since sold unto 
Roger Williams, the lands and meadows upon the two fresh rivers, called 
Mooshausick and Wanasquatucket, do now by these presents, establish and 
confirm the bounds of those lands, from the river and fields at Pawtucket, 
the great hill of Neotackonkonutt, on the northwest, and the town of 
iMashapauge on the west. As also in consideration of the many kindnesses 
and services he hath continualh^ done for us, both with our friends of 
Massachusetts, as also at Quinickicutt and Apaum, or Plymouth, we do 
now freely give unto him all the land from those rivers reaching to 
Pawtuxet River, as also the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet 
River. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands. 

In the presence of 

The Mark * of Setash, 
The Mark * of Assotenewit, 
The Alark * of Caunaunicus, 
The Mark * of Meauntunomo. 

This original deed is preserved, as a precious relic, in the City 
Hall at Providence. 



Bt .« fino^no unto afl'mc. ^,M?/5.i7:,,„,^<7,y^ ,^ ^ , '=\ . _ 



o/o-.J.^-.^ 



-^. A";? .A-Jp., n..^^ I. (.,f.«/^ .„,,./ ^^.l^ »>>.(-^ ./f-^'^^i.- ^-v^^T. ., ;r,,^„/(^i ♦" 6^ 

V'^«v«''^t„ m;^s,.,m, o/,,.,.(?.^«s o,.y„,/A' :&»* »p.^ i^>,j..o.i.- /r^.->'. f'J^'-.'^i; 
Williams' Letter of Transference to His Loving Friends 



40 roger williams 

Early Experiences in Providence 

The Providence planters soon built their crude homes. The 
Indian name of the plantation was Notaquonchanet. In their 
early records of Providence this name is spelt in at least forty- 
two different forms. Other settlers came and swelled their 
numbers. The original six were bound together by a compact. 
It was verbal, or if written, the copy has been lost. When new 
settlers came and Wickes and Angell had reached majority, a 
copy of the original agreement was drawn up and signed by those 
not included in the first compact. Williams was familiar with 
the great compact signed in the Mayflower by the Pilgrims and 
probably it suggested to his mind the need of one in Providence. 
This Providence Compact is as follows : 

We, whose names are hereunder written, being desirous to inhabit in 
the town of Providence, do promise to submit ourselves in active or 
passive obedience, to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for 
the public good of the body, in an orderly way, by the major consent of 
the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together into 
a township, and such others whom they shall admit unto the same, ONLY 
IN CIVIL THINGS. 

Edmund J. Carpenter says of this Compact : 

A compact of government, which in its terms, must be regarded as the 
most remarkable political document theretofore executed, not even ex- 
cepting the Magna Charta. It was a document which placed a govern- 
ment, formed by the people, solely in the control of the civil arm. It 
gave the first example of a pure democracy, from which all ecclesiastical 
power was eliminated. It was the first enunciation of a great principle, 
which years later, formed the corner-stone of the great republic. It 
was the act of a statesman fully a centur>- in advance of his time. 

At the west entrance to the street railroad tunnel in Providence 
a bronze tablet commemorates the fact that there in the open 
air the first town meetings were held. 

Roger Williams' house was opposite the spring, forty-eight 
feet to the east of the present Main Street and four feet north 
of Rowland Street. Next, to the north of his residence, w^as the 
house and lot of Joshua Verein. North of this was Richard 
Scott's. The first house south of Williams' was that of John 







1 ^ 






O 



■r- 



.<' 



^ ,- fy .f,' 




I !,« t,> i* ^ 



«4« 



rf *-, 



%il^'. H^'fiff<^}f 



The Original Providence " Compact " 

Drawn up by the men of Providence, August 20, 1638, and now contained in the 
City Hall. One of the most valuable documents in existence, under which Williams 
and his companions promised to subject themselves in active and passive obedience, 
but " Only in Civil Things." 

"You must look to the Magna Charta, for another such epoch-making decree, 
for these, with the Declaration and the Emancipation Proclamation, are the four great 
dynamic forces of American Freedom." — R. B. Burchard. 

Courtesy of " Providence Magazine," October, 1915 



THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE 43 

Throckmorton and, beyond, that of WilHam Harris. At first 
the struggle for existence was hard, more so because of the loss 
of the crops planted at Seekonk. Governor Winslow, of Plym- 
outh, conscious of the wrong Plymouth Colony had done to 
Williams, visited the little settlement that first summer and left 
a gift of gold with ^Irs. Williams. In the spring and summer 
of the following year, new houses were built along the street. 
The new settlers brought money with them, and Williams enlisted 
outside capital to help develop the colony. 

The number of town lots increased. The land lay between 
the present Main Street and Hope Street. Each lot was of equal 
width and ran eastward. Eventually there were one hundred and 
two of these lots extending from ]\Iile End Brook, which enters 
the river a little north of Fox Point, to Harrington's Lane, now 
the dividing line between Providence and North Providence. 
Meeting and Power Streets were the dividing streets in those 
early days. In addition to the home lot, each proprietor had an 
" out six-acre lot " assigned to him. Williams' " out lot " was at 
" What Cheer Rock." 

The Threatened Indian TRounLE 

Williams, although suffering from Puritan persecution, had 
an opportunity that first year of doing good to his persecutors. 
He became the savior of all the New England Colonies. The 
Pequot Indians planned the annihilation of the English. \\'il- 
liams, hearing of this, did his utmost to break up an Indian league, 
and kept the Narragansetts from joining the Pequots and 
Mohicans. He describes this experience in the following state- 
ment : 

The Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hands, and 
scarce acquainting my wife, to ship alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut 
through a stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of life, 
to the sachem's house. Three days and nights my business forced me 
to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands 
and arms, methought, reeked widi the blood of my countrymen, murdered 
and massacred by them on the Connecticut River, and from whom I could 
not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also. God 
wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break the Pequod's negotia- 
tion and design ; and to make and finish, by many travels and charges, the 
English league with the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequods. 



44 



ROGER WILLIAMS 



As a result of this, the tribe of Pequots was obliterated completely 
and a danger hanging over all the colonies was removed. 

The Indian villages of southern New England were composed 
at times of as many as fifty houses or wigwams. Alost of these 
wigwams were shaped like the half of an orange, with the flat 
or cut surface down. They were ten to twelve feet in diameter 
and could accommodate two families. Other houses were like 
the half of a stovepipe cut lengthwise, twenty to thirty feet long, 
and accommodated from two families in the summertime to 
fifty in the winter, when the people crowded together for the 
sake of warmth. The council-chamber was often as long as one 
hundred feet with a width of thirty feet. It was used only for 
councils. A fortified stockade in the center of the village was 
made of logs set into the ground. Such was the shelter afforded 
Williams when he fled from Salem, and such was the place when 
he met the Indian sachems in council seeking to avert the mas- 
sacre of the whites. In these villages he preached the everlasting 
gospel of the Son of God. He had the constant confidence of 
Indian sachems because he applied to them the principle of soul- 
liberty which he sought to practise among the whites. 

In the autumn of 1638, Roger Williams' third child and first 
son was born and named " Providence." He was the first white 
male child born in this colony. In the year 1639-1640 the town 
grew and felt the need of a system of town government. On 
July 23, 1640, an organization was decided upon in which they 
vested the care of the general interests of the town in five " dis- 
posers ■' or arbitrators. The people retained the right to appeal 
from the " disposers " to the general town meeting. They were 
careful to provide that as " formerly hath been the liberties of 
the town, so still to hold for the liberty of conscience." 

In 1638 a settlement had been made at Portsmouth on Rhode 
Island. John Clarke and Mrs. Ann Hutchinson were the leaders 
of this new band who were looking for a place where they might 
have religious freedom, which was denied them at Boston. They 
went first to New Hampshire, but, finding it too cold there, turned 
to the south. By the friendly assistance of Mr. Williams, they 
secured from Canonicus and Miantonomo, for a consideration of 
forty fathoms of white beads, Aquidneck and other islands in 
Narragansett Bay. The natives residing on the island itself 



46 ROGER WILLIAMS 

were induced to remove for a consideration of ten coats and 
twenty hoes. The new settlers chose Mr. Coddington to be their 
judge and united in a covenant with each other and with their 
God. They made Mr. Coddington their governor in 1640. 

About this same time a number of Providence people settled 
in Pawtuxet, four miles south of Providence in territory ceded 
to Williams. Warwick and Shawomet were settled by Samuel 
Gorton and his friends. Gorton was a strange character who 
did not find things congenial for him at Boston, Plymouth, and 
Newport in turn. Roger Williams, however, gave him shelter 
in Providence. Finally he went to Pawtuxet and later to 
Shawomet, for which he paid four fathoms of wampum to the 
Indians. At once Boston Colony claimed that Shawomet was 
under their jurisdiction. Gorton and his associates refused to 
come to Boston at the bidding of the authorities. Forty soldiers 
came to Shawomet and seized Gorton and ten of his friends and 
imprisoned them in Boston. They were tried for their lives, 
escaping only by two votes. They were then imprisoned in the 
various towns. Each one was compelled to wear a chain fast 
bolted around his legs. If they spoke to any person, other than 
an officer of the Church or of the State, they were to be put to 
death. They were kept at labor that winter and then banished in 
the spring. Gorton escaped to England and secured an order 
from the Earl of Warwick and the Commissioners of the Colonies 
requiring Massachusetts not to molest the settlers at Shawomet. 
Thereafter Gorton and his friends occupied their lands in peace. 

Gorton wrote his side of the question in " Simplicities De- 
fence," in which he referred to his persecutors as " That Servant 
so Imperious in his ]\Iaster's Absence Revived." This is another 
indictment against the persecuting Puritans by one who found 
shelter in the Baptist colony of Rhode Island. 

The Story of the First Charter 

As the colony grew, it was found necessary that there should 
be some vested authority which would command respect from the 
neighbors. Notwithstanding what Williams had done for the 
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies in connection with 
the Pequot War, and the personal friendships he had with the 
governors, they would not consider that he or his had any sepa- 



SIMTLICiTJES TfEFEJ^CE 

againft 

SEVEN-HEADED POLICY. 

OR 

Innocency Vindicated, being unjuftly Acculed, 

andforely Ccururc4.,b5cthat 

Seven - headed Qhurch - Government 

United in 

NEW-ENGLAND: 

OR 

That Servant (b Imperious in his Mailers Abfence 
Revived, and now thus re-ading in N B V V- E N G L A N D, 

OR 

Thecombatcof the United Colonies, not onely againft 
fomeofthe Natives and Subjefts, but againft the Authonty alfo 

of the KingJmc oi England, with thiir execution of Lawt, in the naiDC an J 

Authority of the fcrvaiit, (or of tlicmfclves) and not in the Natr.c and 

Authority of the Loid,or fountain of the Gcveraireiit. 

Wherein is declared an Adl of a great people and Country 
of the Indians in thofeparts,boch Princes and People (unaniasoofly) 
in their voluntary SubmiHion and Subjedion unto the Ptote^ioii 
and Govcrninent of Old Ergland (from the Fame they hear thereof) toge- 
ther with the true manner and forme of it, as it appears uader their ov Ji 
hands and feah, being (lirred up, and provoked thereto, by 
the Combate and courfes above-faid. 

Throughout which Treatife is fecretly intermingled, that 

great Oppofition, which is in the goings forth of thofe two grand 

Spirits, that are, and ever have been, extant in the World 

(lUrough the fans of men) from the beginning and 

foundation theicof. ^j/'^ 

Jmprimatur^ ty4ug. 3«*. i<546. Diligently pcrulcd, approvtd, am 

Liccnfed to the Pre(Te, iccording to Order by pjb'ifcc Autho itv. 



Printedby 7<?/j« A/rffof/^.andareto be fold by Lukb Fawnh, 
at his flwjp in ?auh Cburcbjard^ at the fign of the Fa^rut. \6 ^ f- 



48 ROGER WILLIAMS 

rate colony rights whatever. He had been their Joseph driverr 
from home and country by hostile brethren. In exile, he became 
the savior of his brethren from- a dreadful massacre by the In- 
dians. Nevertheless, Plymouth claimed jurisdiction over all the 
plantations in Narragansett Bay, and Massachusetts claimed it 
over Providence, Pawtuxet, and Shawomet. The Dutch had 
formed a trading-post at Dutch Island and elsewhere and could 
strike a blow at the colony at any time. Out of these conditions 
grew the demand for a charter. Roger Williams, at a great 
personal sacrifice, went to England from Manhattan, now New 
York City, because the two colonies to the north forbade his 
departure from their ports. 

Arriving in England, he found the country in the midst of 
the great Civil War. King Charles was powerless because Par- 
liament controlled the realm. Parliament had placed colonial 
interest in charge of a committee of which the Earl of Warwick 
was chairman or '' Governor in Chief, and Lord High Admiral 
of the Colonies." From this council a charter was granted, 
March 17, 1644. The colony was incorporated as " Providence 
Plantations " and embraced the territory now covered by the State 
of Rhode Island. There was granted to the inhabitants of 
Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, a 

free and absolute charter of incorporation . . . together with full power 
and authority to govern themselves and such others as shall hereafter 
inhabit within any part of said tract of land by such form of civil govern- 
ment as by the voluntary consent of all or the greatest part of them 
shall be found most serviceable to their estate and condition, etc. 

Upon the return of Williams, the inhabitants of Providence, 
learning of his approach, came out in fourteen canoes to meet 
him at the Seekonk. They traveled over the historic course which 
he had traveled six years before when he was an exile. Now 
in triumph they escorted their beloved leader to home and native. 
town. A picture of his return with the charter, by Grant, is on 
the walls of the Court House at Providence. 

The earliest published work of Mr. Williams is entitled, 

A Key into the Language of America : or, an help to the Language 
of the Natives in that part of America, called New-England. Together, 



THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE 5 1 

with briefe Observations of the Customes, Manners and Worships, etc. 
of the aforesaid Natives, in Peace and Warre, in Life and Death. On 
all which are added Spirituall Observations, Generall and Particular by 
the Authour, of chiefe and speciall use (upon all occasions) to all the 
English Inhabiting those parts; yet pleasant and profitable to the view of 
all men : By Roger Williams of Providence in New-England. London, 
Printed by Gregory Dexter, 1643. 

It was written at sea, en route to England, in the summer of 
1643. Copies of the original edition are in the Bodleian Library, 
at Oxford, the British Museum, also in the Library of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, Harvard College, Brown Univer- 
sity, and the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. It 
comprises two hundred and sixteen small duodecimo pages, in- 
cluding preface and table. 

The second published work of Roger Williams is entitled, 
" Mr. Cottons Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered. 
By Roger Williams of Providence, in New-England. London, 
Imprinted in the Yeere 1644." Mr. Cotton had sought to " take 
off the edge of Censure from himself " — that he was no procurer 
of the sorrow which came to Williams in his flight and exile. 
It is a small quarto of forty-seven pages, preceded by an address 
of two pages. The letter referred to was written by John Cotton, 
and was published in London, 1643. The author vindicated the 
act of the magistrates in banishing Roger Williams from Massa- 
chusetts. He denies that he himself had any agency in it. It 
consists of thirteen small quarto pages. Good copies of both the 
Letter and the reply are in the Library of Brown L^niversity. 
Two copies of the reply are in England, one in the British 
Museum, the other in Bodleian Library. A mutilated copy of 
the reply is also in the Library of Yale College. 

Roger Williams wrote also, when in England, securing the 
Charter for Rhode Island, a work entitled, " The Bloudy Tenent, 
of Persecution for cause of Conscience, discussed." It is con- 
sidered the best written of all his works. These discussions were 
prepared in London, 

for publike view, in charge of roomes and corners, yea, sometimes in 
variety of strange houses, sometimes in the fields, in the midst of travel, 
where he hath been forced to gather and scatter his loose thoughts and 
papers. 



M'" Cottons 

LETTER 

Lately Printed; 
EXAMINED 

/VND 

ANSWERED: 



By ^ger Williams of Trovidence 

In 









LONDON, 

Imprinted in the ycere itf+4. 



THE 

BLOVDY TENENT. 

ofPftRSEcUTiON, forcaufeof 
Conscience, difcufledjin 

iiA Conference hettteene 

TRVTH^d PEACE. 

Who. 
In all tender Alfe<flion,prcrent to the High 
. CouxtofTar/iarnent, ( a^ the 'Re/uh o( 
{beir 'Di/courfe) thefe, (aniongft other 
*Paj}agei') of ht2;^efi conjideration* 







w» 




PiimcdinthcYcar x544« 



54 ROGER WILLIAMS 

It is written in an animated style and has the adornment of beau- 
tiful imagery. Original copies are rare, eight only are known 
to exist, one in the British Museum, one in Bodleian Library, one 
in Brown University Library, one in Harvard College Library. 

This work is based on a Baptist publication, entitled " An 
Humble Supplication to the King's Majesty, as it was presented 
1620." This latter was a clear and concise argument against 
persecution and for liberty of conscience. It was written by 
Murton, or some other London Baptist, who was imprisoned 
in Newgate for conscience sake. His confinement was so rigid 

In fucJh Paper written with Afi7i.nothing will appcare.but the wty 
of reading it by /?rf being knowne to this frpcr.d who received the Pa- 
fcts, he tranfcribedtndkcpt together the Papers, although the c^»- 
thijr bimfclfc could not corrcft.nor view what himielic bad w-itten. 

It was in miikf, tending to foulc "cwri/hnent.cven for Batef and Suck- 
lings in Chrift. 

It wftsin f7M7(i:f,fpiritually white, pure and innocent, likcthofe whitt 
horfes of the fVerdoitrtitb and ntiek.»ej[f,zr\A the white Lmnen or Armottr 
oi ngbteoHf/tefryin the ty^rmy oife/us. Rfv.6.ii 19. 

It was in wj7^<?,foft,meeke, peaceable and gem le, tending both to 
the ptAce oi fomlfj^ and the fr*ce ot Statts and Xingdomcs. 

/Mf/.Thc yi«/jwr(though I hope cut ofinilkie pure knttrttion$)isre- .j.j^^ -_ 
turned in i>loMcl;i>loudj dc flaughtcrous cancliifiQHi-Jflomdj to the /o*// of all {^^„ ^^^^ 
irien,forc*d to th^Relinen and U'orjlif which every civil State or Com- in Bloiui. 
mon-weale agrees on, and compells allfubjeds to in a drffcmbled 
$t»ifi/rmitte. 

Bloudy to the ^(Jj/w, firftofthc holy mtneQ'ts o( Cbrifi fe/it/, who 
tcftifie agaioft fuch invented worQiips. 

Secondly, of the JV<»frww and Peoples flaughtcring eacfaotherfot 
their feveraU refpeftive Religions and Confcienccs. 

Roger Williams' Reference to " An Humble Supplication " in His 
" Bloudy Tenant " 

that he was denied pen, paper, and ink. A friend in London 
sent him sheets of paper, as stoppers for the bottles containing 
his daily allowance of milk. He wrote his thoughts on these 
sheets with milk, returning them to his friends as stoppers for 
the empty bottles. They were held to the fire and thus became 
legible. Roger Williams based his book on the argument of this 
" Humble Supplication." 

The little band which settled Providence on that June day, 
1636, had grown into a large town. With other towns they 



THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE , 55 

suffered the same injustice from neighboring colonies. The 
assembly in Newport, September 19, 1642, which intrusted the 
work of securing a charter to Williams, was in reality fusing 
together these separate groups, which had a common enemy and 
common principles, into a State. The Town of Providence, a 
great monument to Roger Williams, must now give way to the 
State of Rhode Island, which was destined to become a still 
larger monument to the ideals of this great exponent of civil and 
religious liberty, " a liberty which does not permit license in civil 
matters in contempt of law and order." 



Ill 



THE HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF 
SOUL-LIBERTY 



Roger Williams must forever rank as one of the great epoch-makers 
of the world, and to him impartial historians accord the honor of 
being the first democrat. It was not until his expulsion from Salem Colony 
that he became a Baptist, but the evidence is indisputable that he had 
long been a Baptist at heart. He had spent much time among the Bap- 
tists in England and was familiar with their doctrines and writings. 
No sooner had Williams set foot in America than he found himself in 
conflict with the authorities, both civil and religious. — 6". Z. Batten, in 
" The Christian State." 

There is not a confession of faith, nor a creed, framed by any of 
the Reformers, which does not give the magistrate a coercive power in 
religion, and almost every one at the same time curses the resisting 
Baptists. — E. B. Underhill, in "Struggles and Triumphs." 

Godly princes may lawfully issue edicts for compelling obstinate and 
rebellious persons to worship the true God and to maintain the unity of 
the faith. — Calvin. 

Democracy, I do not concej've that ever God did ordeyne as a fit 
government eyther for Church or Commonwealth. . . As for monarchy and 
aristocracy, they are both of them clearly approved, and directed in 
Scripture. — John Cotton. 

It is said that Men ought to have Liberty of their Conscience, and that 
it is Persecution to debar them of it ; I can stand amazed than reply 
to this : It is an astonishment to think that the brains of men should be 
parboiled in such impious ignorance. — Rev. Nathaniel Ward, Lawyer 
Divine, of Ipswich, who dreiu tip tJie first legal code for Massachusetts 
Bay Colony. 



THE HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF 
SOUL-LIBERTY 



ROGER WILLIA]\IS, both minister and citizen, probably 
led the Providence planters in their rehgious activities. 
He was neither identified with the EstabHshed Church of 
England, nor in sympathy with the intolerance of the new estab- 
lished order at Boston and Salem, or even the one at Plymouth. 
He was a Separatist of the most pronounced type, and that was 
exactly the accredited Baptist position. He was one with the 
Baptists in his ideas concerning- a complete separation from the 
State Church of England, one with them in the absolute separa- 
tion of Church and State, one with them in insisting- upon a 
regenerate church-membership. So according to the logic of 
the situation he turned to the Baptist movement. He may have 
been instructed as to their position by Mrs. Scott (the sister of 
the Antinomian, Mrs. Ann flutchinson), wdio came to Providence 
shortly before the baptism of Williams. Roger Williams had 
been accused of tendencies toward the Anabaptists while in 
Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Before he met Mrs. Scott, how- 
ever, he held the Baptist positions of the time. It is not unlikely 
that she, being an intelligent Baptist, showed Williams the re- 
markable similarity between his position and that of the Bap- 
tists. Some time before Alarch, 1639, Williams was baptized. 
In the absence of a Baptist minister, Ezekiel Holliman, an exile 
from Salem, baptized Roger Williams, who in turn baptized 
Mr. Holliman and some ten others. Like the disciple band of 
old the Baptist movement in Providence and America com- 
menced with a band of twelve disciples. Their names are as 
follows : Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, William x\rnold ( ?),^ 
William Harris, Stukely Westcott, John Green, Richard Water- 
man, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Carpenter (?), 
Francis Weston, and Thomas Olney. Thus was organized the 
First Baptist Church in America. 

^ The " ? " is after Arnold's name in First Baptist Church Register. 

59 



6o ROGER WILLIAMS 

Great was the consternation in Salem when news reached there 
of the baptism of Wilhams and others who had been members of 
their church. The Puritan church took action at once. The letter 
announcing to the church at Dorchester the exclusion of the 
oiTenders is interesting: 

Reverend and dearly beloved in the Lord : 

We thought it our bounden duty to acquaint you with the names of 
such persons, as have had the great censure passed upon them, in this 
our church, with the reasons thereof, beseeching you in the Lord, not 
only to read their names in public to yours, but also to give us the like 
notice of any dealt with in like manner by you, so that we may walk 
toward them accordingly, for some of us here have had communion 
ignorantly with some of other churches. 2 Thess. 3 : 14. We can do no 
less than have such noted as disobey the truth. 

Roger Williams and his wife, John Throckmorton and his wife, Thomas 
Olney and his wife, Stukely Westcott and his wife, Mary Holliman, 
Widow Reeves. 

These wholly refused to hear the church, denying it, and all the churches 
in the Bay, to be true churches, and (except two) are all rebaptized. 

After some time Roger Wilhams left the Baptist church he 
had organized in Providence. Because of this fact many have 
asked the question, " Was Roger Williams after all a Baptist? " 
His life-story reveals the fact that he held the Baptist views 
before he left Plymouth. Elder Brewster detected the Baptist 
heresy in his teaching to the people of the Pilgrim colony and 
warned the leaders of the Bay Colony of this tendency to " Ana- 
baptistery." Williams' ministry in the Bay Colony reveals the 
fact that he was against everything which was related to the 
Episcopacy or that might even lead to a " presbytery." He re- 
fused to minister to the Boston church because it was related 
to the Episcopal State Church of England. He also questioned 
the propriety of the ministers' conference in New England, for 
fear they might establish a presbytery which would rob the local 
church of its congregational privileges. His whole life in Amner- 
ica was universally true to the accepted Baptist position relative 
to church polity. 

At the time of Williams' baptism, English Baptists were 
agitated in regard to the proper administrators of Christian bap- 
tism. Many crossed to the Continent and were baptized by min- 



HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF SOUL-LIBERTY 6l 

isters in Holland. Williams was soon troubled also in regard to 
the same question. Was he properly baptized? That was the 
question which confronted him. He would not juggle with 
his conscience. He knew of no Baptist minister or baptized 
believer ordained to the ministry in America when he was bap- 
tized. His own baptism was by an unbaptized person. He made 
dilig"ent study of the question and could not satisfy his mind 
that there was a real succession of proper administrators. In 
the awful decline of the church he was convinced that the sacred 
succession had been broken. He believed that either that suc- 
cession must be in existence, or God must raise up a new " aposto- 
late," to commence again the sacred succession. True to prin- 
ciple, he felt he must withdraw from the church at Providence. 
In the years which followed nothing which he; said or did ever 
changed the facts that he was the first recognized pastor of the 
first Baptist church that was organized in America, that he was 
the first known case in America of a believer being immersed 
upon profession of faith into the fellowship of a local Baptist 
church, and that he was the organizer of the first Baptist church 
in America. 

In the years which followed his separation from the church at 
Providence, he left no uncertainty as to his Baptist views on 
every question save that of the proper administrator of bap- 
tism and its kindred subject of ordination. In all other views he 
was a loyal Baptist until his death. In his day, the Baptists 
were divided into two recognized divisions, namely. Particular 
and General Baptists. Dr. Henry M. King, of Providence, one 
of the successors of Roger Williams in the pastorate of the 
Providence church, describes Roger Williams as a " High-church 
Baptist." 

The late Reuben A. Guild, for many years librarian of Brown 
University Library, and a thorough student of the original sources 
of information, writes thus of Roger Williams in his history of 
Brown University : 

In regard to the other great doctrines held hy the Baptists, liberty of 
conscience, or soul-liberty, the entire separation of Church and State, 
the supreme headship of Christ in all spiritual matters, regeneration 
through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and a hearty belief in the Bible as 
God's divinely inspired and miraculously preserved word and the all- 
F 



62 ROGER WILLIAMS 

sufficient rule for faith and practice, he was throughout hfe a sincere 
behever in them all and an earnest advocate of them, as his letters and 
published works abundantly show. 

In Williams' book, " Christenings make not Christians," we 
have the most radical Baptist teaching- in regard to the errors of 
infant sprinkling. He attacked the very foundation of the pedo- 
baptists. He insisted that only the regeneration of the heart, 
through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, could make any person 
a Christian. 

He believed that believers' immersion is the New Testament 
baptism. In a letter to Governor Winthrop, dated December lO, 
1649, he writes : 

Mr. John Clarke hath been here lately and hath dipped them. I 
believe their practice comes nearer the practice of our great Founder, 
Jesus Christ, than any other practices of religion do. 

In his debate with Fox, he writes thus, eleven years prior to his 
death : 

That gallant and heavenly and fundamental principle of the true matter 
of a Christian congregation, flock or societ}-, namely, actual believers, true 
disciples and converts, such as can give an account of how the grace of 
God hath appeared unto them. 

We should think of Roger Williams as a man chosen of God 
to be champion of a great distinctive Baptist doctrine held by 
the Baptists centuries prior to his day and taught by the Bap- 
tists after his time until it was made an essential part of our 
national Constitution. Released from pastoral duties, Roger Wil- 
liams gave himself completely to the task of establishing and 
guarding the sacred fires of soul-liberty which he had kindled in 
Rhode Island. For this sacred cause he sacrificed his com- 
fortable home at Salem and devoted the earnings of a lifetime 
in trips to England to secure parliamentary protection for the 
colony when envious neighbors on all sides were coveting his 
purchased possessions. He sacrificed his opportunity to become 
wealthy and died a poor man. All honor to John Clarke, physi- 
cian and pastor at Newport, for the splendid cooperation which 
he gave to Williams. They were comrades, not rivals for fame 
in those days. They were happy in life and should not be made 



Chrlftenings 

make not 

CHRISTIANS, 

OR 

A Briefe Difcourfe concerning that 

name Heathen, commonly given to 

the Indians. 

As alfo conccTuing that great point of their 
CONVERSION. 




PubliPied according to Order. 



London, Printed by lane Coe, for I. H. 1645. 



04 ROGER WILLIAMS 

enemies in death. Their names should be Hnked together as 
the pioneers and perfecters of soul-Hberty in Rhode Island. 

The History of the First Baptist Church 

The early Providence Baptists met at first in a grove under 
the trees. In inclement weather they would meet in private 
homes. They adopted no articles of faith, and to this day the 
First Church of Providence has been without a formal creed or 
covenant. For sixty years the church founded by Roger Williams 
had no house of worship. Pardon Tillinghast, its sixth pastor, 
built them a house of worship in 1700 and deeded it to the 
Society in 1711. It stood on the corner of North INIain and 
Smith Streets. A larger church, forty feet square, built in 1726, 
succeeded this first edifice. The present edifice was built in 
1775, and was dedicated "'for the worship of Almighty God 
and to hold commencements in." It cost $35,000, a part of which 
was raised by a lottery, authorized by the State. The building 
was designed by Joseph Brown and James Sumner, who used 
as a model Gibb's church in London, St. Martin-in-thc-FicJds. 
It is recognized as one of the finest examples of colonial architec- 
ture in America. 

It has a beautiful interior. The upper gallery at the west end 
was originally set apart for slaves and colored people. It was 
removed to give place for the pipe-organ in 1832. The same 
year the old-fashioned square pews were exchanged for the 
present ones ; the lofty pulpit and sounding-board were taken 
down. The beautiful crystal chandelier, imported from England 
in 1792 was lighted for the first time when Hope Brown, daugh- 
ter of Nicholas Brown, was married to Thomas Poynton Ives. 
It was the bride's gift to the church. 

The bell in the tower weighs two thousand five hundred pounds, 
and bore originally this inscription : 

For freedom of conscience the town was first planted; ' 

Persuasion, not force, was used by the people ; 

This church is the eldest, and has not recanted. 
Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple. 

It has been cracked three times and recast in this country. It 
now bears the date of the origin of the church, and the name 




First Baptist Church of Providence 




Roger Mowry's " Ordinarie." Built 1653, 
Demolished 1900 



HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF SOUL-LIBERTY 67 

of Roger Williams, " its first pastor and the first asserter of 
liberty of conscience." The bell is rung at sunrise, at midday, 
and at nine o'clock as in the days of old. 

In the vestries are pictures of many of the former leaders of 
this historic church. In the hallway, in a glass case, is a piece 
of the original " What Cheer Rock," the landing-place of Wil- 
liams. At the entrance to the church a bronze tablet commemo- 
rates the fact that the First Baptist Church of Providence was the 
first Baptist church established in /Vmerica and that Roger Wil- 
liams was its first pastor. 

The present organization, known as the First Baptist Church 
of Providence, has every valid reason for claiming to be the 
true successor of the original church, organized before 1639, 
by Roger Williams. In the Rhode Island Baptist State Annual 
the date of the church's organization is given as 1638. A com- 
mittee appointed by the church, when reporting, on March 16, 
1899, the reasons for claiming that the present organization is 
the true successor of the first Baptist church organized in Amer- 
ica, quoted in defense of this position the following writers : 
Arnold, " History of Rhode Island " ; Caldwell, " History of the 
First Baptist Giurch " ; Guild, " History of Brown University 
and Manning " ; Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, of Yale, " In Colonial 
Era " ; Cramp, " Baptist History " ; Dexter, '* As to Roger Wil- 
liams " ; Morgan Edwards, " Materials for a History of Baptists 
in Rhode Island." In the following fall this report was also 
presented to the Warren Association and was ordered printed in 
the Minutes of the Association. 

In the " Historical Catalogue " of this church, a book pre- 
pared by a committee consisting of Rev. H. M. King, D. D., 
Pres. W. H. P. Faunce, Prof. Wm. C. Poland, and others, a 
committee familiar with the original sources of information, we 
find Roger Williams listed as the first member in its list of mem- 
bers and as the first pastor in its list of pastors. The bronze 
tablet in front of the present meeting-house and the inscription 
on the bell both state that Roger Williams was the first pastor. 

Roger Williams' Ideal, a Distinctive Baptist Principle 

We have already noted the fact that Roger Williams was ac- 
cused of Anabaptist tendencies. The Baptists, or Anabaptists, 



68 ROGER WILLIAMS 

throughout the ages have stood for the most advanced principles 
of Protestantism. They existed long before Luther. Many 
historians claim for them a historic continuity from the days of 
the early Christians. Their principles — democracy of the local 
church, sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the authority 
of the Scriptures — have been perpetuated by local distinct bodies 
rather than by the historic continuity of a general denomination 
with a common name and a common governing body. 

The Master, in the parable of the Tares, taught the principle 
advocated by the Baptists and by Roger Williams. The field is 
the world ; the good seed, the children of the kingdom ; the tares 
are the evil-doers. Wheat and tares should be allowed to grow 
together in the world ( not in the church ) until the end of the 
age, when the angels, the reapers of God, will gather them to- 
gether for reward or punishment. Force must never be used to 
make disciples for Christ. 

In the early Christian centuries, the church longed for liberty 
to live for Christ and preach his gospel. Ten great general per- 
secutions were launched by the Roman emperors to crush the 
church. The promise that the gates of hell would not prevail 
against it was realized. The Edict of Milan, issued in 313, by 
Constantine and Licinius, joint emperors, gave the church an op- 
portunity to grow and prosper and it was soon in the lead through- 
out the Roman Empire. Then the church turned persecutor 
and put to death those who differed from the ruling order, which 
now had lost its democratic ideals. When the Alontanists, the 
Donatists, the Paulicians, the Albigenses, and the Waldenses in 
•turn resisted the evil tendencies and assumptions of a corrupt 
church, they were persecuted with a fierceness greater than that 
formerly waged by the pagans against the church. The principle 
of religious liberty was almost lost. It became the far-off dream 
of idealists. These dreamers were usually called Anabaptists. 
At first they were dissenters from Roman Catholicism, but after- 
ward they were also dissenters from the dominant forms of Prot- 
estantism. 

The Protestant Reformation was a case of arrested develop- 
ment. It was like the exodus from the Eg^'ptian bondage. 
There was a long lingering in the wilderness before the day 
dawned with full religious liberty. Henry Melville King says: 




Interior of First Baptist Church, Providence 



HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF SOUL-LIBERTY 7I 

The absolute supremacy of the word of God, the spiritual nature of tlie 
Christian church, the Christian ordinances for believing souls, the divorce 
of Church and State, full, inirestricted religious freedom for every man, 
these essential truths of the gospel of Christ found no room at the inn 
of the sixteenth centur\-, and were thrust aside into the manger . . . the 
inn was not open for it, but the manger was. The principle of religious 
liberty did not fail to get born. 

The Anabaptists of Europe kept alive the ideals of religious 
liberty. They sought to carry out the principles of the Protestant 
Reformation to its scriptural and logical conclusion. Many, 
called by this name, had little in common with the movement 
which now bears the Baptist name. The actions of the fanatics 
under Miinzer have been cited since Williams' day as an argu- 
ment against his principles. jMunzer, who " never submitted to, 
nor administered rebaptism, who persisted in baptizing infants, 
and who sought to set up the kingdom of Christ by carnal war- 
fare, was not correctly classed." Cornelius, Roman Catholic his- 
torian of the AliJnzer uprising, shows that the Anabaptists re- 
pudiated the actions of this fanatic. 

The only crime of which they (the Baptists) were accused as a body 
by their contemporaries, and which is substantiated by evidence, the crime 
for which they were inhumanly persecuted by Catholics and Protestants 
alike, and for which they went cheerfully and in large numbers to death 
by drowning or the stake, was the crime of advocating soul-liberty. 
They claimed the right to interpret the Scriptures for themselves. They 
demanded freedom of faith and worship for all men. They apprehended 
the sublime doctrine of civil and religious liberty, and they were the 
only men who did apprehend it. 

Most of the creeds and confessions of the Reformation gave 
to the magistrate a coercive power in religion, and included a 
curse for the despised Baptists. Luther, in the early years of his 
Reformation work, said : 

No one can command or ought to command the soul except God, who 
alone can show it the w'ay to heaven. It is futile and impossible to com- 
mand, or by force to compel any man's belief. Heresy is a spiritual 
thing, which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown. . . 
Whenever the temporal power presumes to legislate for the soul, it 
encroaches. 

Luther, when he was successful, turned his back upon this noble 
utterance and compromised with error. He stopped short of 



72 ROGER WILLIAMS 

full victory and failed to secure the " full splendor of a complete 
triumph." He wrote differently in after days : 

Since it is not good that in one parish the people should be exposed to 
contradictory preaching, he (the magistrate) should order to be silent 
whatever does not consist with the Scriptures. 

Thus the civil ruler was made the final judge of truth and given 
power to suppress what he would condemn. This was a case 
of tyranny changing hands. Luther wrote to ]\Ienius and Myco- 
nius in 1530: 

1 am pleased that j-ou intend to publish a book against the Anabaptists 
as soon as possible. Since they are not only blasphemous but also seditious 
men, let the sword exercise its rights over them, for it is the will of 
God, that he shall have judgment who resisteth the power. 

Melanchthon, in a letter to the Diet at Hamburg, in 1537, advised 
death by the sword to all who professed Anabaptist views. 
Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, whose statue in Zurich pictures 
him with a Bible in his right hand and a sword in his left, also 
persecuted the Baptists. On January 5, 1527, Felix j\Iantz be- 
came the first Swiss Anabaptist martyr by drowning at Zurich. 
This was a hideous parody of his belief in believers' baptism by 
immersion. Heinrich Bullinger, in his book against the Ana- 
baptists, specifies thirteen distinct sects among the Anabaptists. 
He mentions twenty-five points of agreement among them, in- 
cluding the following: 

That secular authority has no concern with religious belief ; that the 
Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law-courts ; nor should 
ever make use of the tribunals; that Christians do not kill or punish 
with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from the body 
of believers ; that no man should be compelled by force to believe, 
nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that Christians do not 
resist, and hence do not go to war; that Christians may not swear; 
that all oaths are sinful ; that infant baptism is of the pope and devil ; 
that rebaptism, or better, adult baptism, is the only true Christian baptism. 

In 1527, the Swiss Anabaptists issued a confession of faith at 
Schaffhausen. Its writer was Michael Sattler, an ex-monk who 
was martyred that same year. It was the first confession " in 
which Christian men claimed absolute religious freedom for 




Bell of First Baptist Church, Providence 



HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF SOUL-LIBERTV 75 

themselves, and guaranteed absolute religious freedom to others;' 
This Baptist movement was the target of Protestant and Catholic 
persecution alike and its brave, spiritual men and women were 
driven to the martyr's crown or to exile. Many fled to Hol- 
land. The torch of truth, the advanced ideas which they had 
received from the Waldensians and other pre-Reformation move- 
ments, were handed over to the Anabaptists of Holland. These 
increased in number rapidly under the toleration afforded them in 
that country. Menno Simons, a Roman priest, set to thinking by 
the martyrdoms about him, espoused their cause and doctrines. 
Baptized at the age of forty-four, he fled to Holland, where he 
became the leader of a host, which afterward bore his name, 
being called Alennonites. Charles V persecuted these Baptists, 
and fully fifty thousand were martyred. They were not exter- 
minated, however, for God, as in other days, preserved a remnant 
to pass the torch of religious liberty on to others. 

Baptist refugees from Holland crossed over to England. 
Henry VHI, when he made himself head of the Church, ordered 
their arrest and banishment from the kingdom, " on pain to 
suffer death, if they abide, and be apprehended and taken." The 
fires of Smithfield and the inquisition of the Protestants could 
not crush this movement destined of God, at a later date, to 
change the world. Considered an obnoxious sect in the reigns 
of Edward VI, Alary, and Elizabeth, they carried on their meet- 
ings secretly. They were an industrious class of skilled mechanics 
and introduced into England that which afterward gave that 
nation its commercial and manufacturing supremacy. The En- 
glish passed a law that each foreign workman should take and 
train one English apprentice. As a result, fifty thousand En- 
glish lads were trained, not only mechanically, but also in the 
principles of these Dutch Anabaptists. This spiritual training 
led to the Puritan revolution in England and to the greater 
movement across the seas. Each of these Dutch Baptist churches 
was a republic in itself, independent with its popularly elected 
officers, deacons, and elders. They held, as a cardinal doctrine, 
the separation of Church and State. From the sections in which 
these Dutch Anabaptists lived came fully fifty per cent of the 
early colonists to the New World. Fourteen English towns, in 
which they formed a large proportion of the population, are 



/G R(3GER WILLIAMS 

duplicated by New England towns of the same name. From 
the same district Cromwell recruited his invincible Ironsides. 
Back of all that was good and noble in the settlements at Plymouth 
and Boston and in Connecticut was the leaven of the Dutch Bap- 
tists in that part of England from which these early colonists 
came. 

Robert Browne, who is the reputed founder of English Con- 
gregationalism, advocated his peculiar views after dwelling for 
some time in a Dutch Anabaptist community. Here he pro- 
mulgated his ideas. A part of his congregation fled to Middle- 
burg, a Baptist stronghold. After two years he quarreled 
with these folks and returned to England, where he became 
reconciled to the Established Church and for forty years after- 
ward administered to an Established Church parish. The Bap- 
tist principle, however, had been stamped upon the few years 
of his ministry when he started a new order. 

At the close of the sixteenth century most of the Anabaptists 
in England were Dutch. Slowly, however, English Baptists were 
coming into existence, and they soon formed themselves into 
small groups. Browne did not go so far as the Baptists, but in 
church government he took their New Testament position. As 
far as is known, the first definite English Baptist church was 
organized in London in 1611, with Thomas Helwys as pastor. 
The members had been exiles in Holland and were baptized there 
by Rev. John Smith, the famous Se-Baptist, formerly a Church 
of England clergyman. 

This English Baptist church formulated a confession which 
contains the first declaration of faith to include, as the teaching 
of Christ, the absolute separation of Church and State. 

The magistrate by virtue of his office, is not to meddle with religion 
or matters of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of 
religion or doctrine ; but to leave the Christian religion free to every 
man's conscience. 

Prof. Mason says : 

It was, in short, from their little dingy meeting-house, somewhere 
in old London, that there flashed out, first in England, the absolute doc- 
trine of religious liberty. 



HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF. SOUL-LIBERTY yj 

These of whom mention has just been made, were called General 
Baptists. 

In 1644, the Particular Baptists issued a confession, equally- 
explicit and clear. Religious liberty to them was the right, and 
good citizenship the duty, of every Christian man. Their his- 
toric confession, a confession of seven associated churches, was 
the first declaration, in England or in Christendom, by a body 
of associated churches on the question of absolute religious liberty. 
j\Iany of these Baptists were imprisoned. 

Many denominations which today favor religious liberty, were 
opposed to it in those days of Baptist persecution. For example, 
the Presbyterian ministers of Lancashire declared, " A tolera- 
tion would be putting a sword in a madman's hands, a cup of 
poison into the hand of a child, a letting loose of madmen with 
firebrands in their hands, etc." The Presbyterians, then, would 
gladly have been a national church. The Puritans of the Bay 
Colony had no higher thought than a theocracy for themselves. 
To insure uniformity of worship in their colony they resorted 
to whippings, banishments, fines, and hangings. The Pilgrim 
Fathers were farther advanced, but historians fail to find that 
they had a higher ideal than to secure a freedom to worship God 
for themselves. They certainly never dreamed of extending 
an equal freedom to all who differed from them" in religious 
opinions. John Robinson, the renowned pastor of the Pilgrims, 
defended earnestly the use of the magistrate's power " to punish 
religious actions, he (the magistrate) being the preserver of 
both tables, and so to punish all breaches of both." 

By Protestants, with the exception of the Baptists, full religious 
toleration and liberty was feared and hated. The most advanced 
were far from the Baptist position. This explains the bitterness 
of the persecution against Roger Williams and the Baptists. In 
fact, Roger Williams was so far in advance of his age, and that 
in common with the noble host of martyred Baptists, that he 
seemed dwarfed in the distance. The future even more than the 
present time will enable us to value his and their worth. 



IV 



SOUL- LIBERTY AT HOME IN A 
COMMONWEALTH 



It is his unique title to preeminence and fame that he was the first to 
found an absolutely free church in an absolutely free State, and Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations remain a monument of his sagacity 
and daring and penetration, a center from which the light of soul-liberty 
has radiated far and wide till it has flooded a whole continent, and 
shines with concentrated splendor in the constellation of States which 
now form the great Western Republic. — /. Gregory, a British uritcr on 
Puritanism. 

Against the somber background of early New England, two figures 
stand above the rest — John Winthrop and Roger Williams. The first — 
astute, reactionary, stern — represented Moses and the law. The second — 
spontaneous, adaptable, forgiving — represented Christ and the individual. 
It is needless to say w'ith which lay the promise and the dawn. — /. B. 
Richman. 

He was the first man in modern Christendom to establish civil govern- 
ment on the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opinions 
before the law, and in its defence he was the harbinger of Milton, the 
precursor and the superior of Jeremy Taylor. . . Let then the name 
of Roger Williams be preserved in universal history as one who advanced 
moral and political science, and made himself a benefactor of his race. — 
George Bancroft, in "History of the United States." 

In the seventeenth century there was no place but the wilderness for 
such a John the Baptist of the distant future as Roger Williams. He 
did not belong among the diplomatic builders of churches, like Cotton, or 
the political founders of States, like Winthrop. He was but a babbler 
to his own time, but the prophetic voice rings clear and far, and ever 
clearer as the ages go on. — Edzvard Egglcsion, in " TIte Beginners of a 
Nation." 



SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A 
COMMONWEALTH 



PORTS^MOUTH, Newport, and Rhode Island, with com- 
mon interests and ideals, were protected and throve under 
the original charter granted in 1644. Charles I was sur- 
rendered to the Parliamentary forces in January, 1647. The 
colony, therefore, felt strong to act under the Parliamentary 
charter granted them. A general assembly, of the people was 
called, and the charter was adopted. Shawomet, settled by the 
Gortonists, had also received a charter from the same source 
and, in honor of Warwick, their protector, they changed the name 
of their town to Warwick. They were admitted also to the 
General Assembly. The first meeting of the Assembly declared 
that the form of government in Providence Plantations was 
" democratical," that is to say, " government held by the free and 
voluntary consent of all or of the greater part of the free in- 
habitants." The seal of the colony was an anchor. The execu- 
tive branch of the government was vested in a president of the 
colony and four assistants, one from each town. These officers, 
elected by the General Assembly, had no part in legislation. The 
Assemblv at that time was not composed of delegates, but in- 
cluded all the freemen of the colony. Each town had a court 
of commissioners composed of six members. These four town 
courts combined became a General Court of Trials, having to 
do with the weightier offenses, and also acted as a Court of 
Appeals from the town courts. There was also a general trea- 
surer, a general recorder, a general sergeant, and later a general 
solicitor. 

A code of laws was drawn up. One. the Statute of Archery, 
shows the isolation of this colony. It required that every man 
between seventeen and seventy should keep a bow and four 
arrows. Fathers should furnish each of their sons, between the 
ages of seven and seventeen, with " a bow, two arrows, and a 
shaft, and to bring them up to shooting." This was done because 

81 



The Fourth Paper > 

Prefented by 

Maior Butler 7 

To the Honourable Committee of 

Pailiament , for the Propagating the 
Gofpcl of C/?-r//? JESUS. 

Which Paper was humbly owned^and 

waSj and is attended to be made good 

CMajor ButUr. O CMr. lackfort. 

By <Mr. Charles Vdne, f sMr. VVaU. And 

CCoI. Danvers, j cMr. Turner, 

ALSO 

A Letter from Mr. (joady to Major 

B u T L E R , upon occafion of the faid 

Paper and Proposals, 

Together with 

A Teftimony to the faid fourth Paper , 

By way of Explanation upon the four 

PROPOSALS of it. 



B r R. w. 



Unto which is fubjoyned the Fifteen Propofals 
of the M 1 N I S T E R S, 



Ztf;;itf», Printed for gi/es Calvert, at the B lack- fpred- Eagle at the 
Wcft-end of JPrf*//, (M DC III, 



SOUL-LIUERTV AT ilOME IX A COMMONWEALTH 83 

the colony could not get gunpowder for firearms, since the other 
colonies refused to sell them any, or allow it to be exported 
through their posts to them. 

Roger Williams' Second Visit to England 

The ambitious designs of Coddington in seeking to divide 
the colony were such that Williams and Clarke were obliged to 
go to England in 165 1. Coddington had secured a charter mak- 
ing him governor for life of Rhode Island, then the richest por- 
tion of the State. W^illiams and Clarke in 1652 secured an 
order-in-council nullifying Coddington's commission. Williams 
remained in England until the summer of 1654 and labored there 
for the interests of the colony and also for the general benefit 
of all oppressed people, including the Jews. In his appeal to 
the Parliament, found as a comment in the tract entitled " Butler's 
Fourth Paper," an original copy of which is in the John Carter 
Brown Library, at Providence, he says : 

Oh, that it would please the Father of Spirits to affect the heart of 
Parliament with such a merciful sense of the Soul-Bars and Yokes which 
our fathers have laid upon the neck of this nation, and at last to pro- 
claim a true and absolute Soul-Freedom to all the people of the land 
impartially, so that no person be forced to pray nor pay, otherwise than 
as his Soul believeth and consenteth. 

He plead especially that permission be granted the Jews " to live 
freely and peaceably amongst them." 

He was on intimate terms with Milton, to whom he read 
and from whom he received instruction in certain languages. He 
also was associated with Sir Henry Vane. Returning to his 
colony in 1654, he at once exercised his influence in smoothing 
out its many and varied difficulties. 

During this second visit to England he issued three publica- 
tions. John Cotton had written a reply to the " Bloody Tenent." 
publishing it in London, in 1647. It had the following title : 

The Bloudy Tenent, washed, and made white in the bloud of the Lambe : 
being discussed and discharged of bloud-guiltinesse by just Defence. 

Roger Williams in 1652 printed his rejoinder to Cotton's book. 
Its title is descriptive of its contents : 



r 



THE ] 

BLOUDY TENENtJ 

fF ASHE D , 

And made white in the bloud of the 

liambc : being difcaffcd and difcharged of 
bloud -guiltineflTc by juft Defence. 

WHEREIN 
Tlie great Qacftions of this prcftnt time are 
handled , vtz. Hoy farre Liberty of Confcience 
ought CO be given to thoQ that truly feare God? And how farre 
reftrained to turbulent and pellilent perfons, chat not one- 
ly ra2: the foundation of Godlinefic, but difturb the C'lvill 
Peace where they live ? Alfo how farre the Magiftrate may pro- 
ceed in the duties of the firft Table* And that ail Magiftrates 
ought CO Rudy the word and will of God , that they may frame 
their Government according to ic 

DISCUSSED. 
As they arealledged from divers Scriptures, out of 
the Old and New Teftatnent. Wherein, alfo the praftift of 
Princes is debated, together with the Judgement of An- 
cient and Jate Writers of moft precious efteeme. 

ivhertunto is added a 'Rjply to CAfr, Williams 
Anftver, to Mr. Cottons Letter. 

^T John Cotton Batchelor in Divinity , and 
Teacher of the Church of Chrift at Bofion in Nivc-Eagland. 

L J<[ T> N, 
Printed by Adattbev Symmms for Harmab ABen, at the Ctovctk in 
PopeJ-Head-AWty. I 6 4 7. 



PI THE '^^^ 

^BLOODY TENENTi 

YET #< 



I More Bloody: | 

^^ BY ^^ 

iH_i: Mr Cottoni endevour to wafli it white in the 
M^ B L o o D of the L AMD Ei 



-^. Of whofe precious Blood, fpttt in the. ^ 

*^^i Blood of his Servants ,'. and *« 

^ Of the blood of Millions fpiit in former and ^ 

^"^ later Wars for Gonfcicnce fake , IS** 

h^ T H A T ^ h^ 

^^ Moft Bloody Tenent of Perfecation for cnufe of ^ 

^^ Confciencc, upon a fccond Tryal, is found now more j*r^ 

^3 apparently and more notorioufly guilty. ^^ 

^ In this Rejoynder to Mr Ccturf^ ^re principa 



j^ L The Nature of Ferfecution^ p *#* 

1^ II. TCtf Tower of the Cimll 5»?pre;^Examincdi #• 

^ inSpiritnals S * 

J^.lW'TheParliarmnts permiffionof? J n/- j «^. 

,^ Dtjfentwg Confciences ^-^ p^ 

j^ Alfo(as a Teftimony toM^CUrks Narraiive)is added ^ 

^^ a Letter to Mr Endim Governor of the Majfachufets \n N. E. 1^ 

^ By R. Wi L L I A M s of Providence m Ne'^England. ^-0 

lAa London^ Printed for ^7^'/ Calvert^ and are to be fold ac ti 

■TO theblack-fprcad-Eagleatthe Wefl-cndof F<jh/j, i552. |jp* 



85 ROGER WILLIAMS 

The Bloody Tenent yet Alore Bloody: by Mr Cottons endevour to wash 
it white in the Blood of the Lambe ; of whose precious Blood, spilt in 
the Blood of his Servants ; and of the blood of Millions spilt in former 
and later Wars for Conscience sake, that Most Bloody Tenent of Persecu- 
tion for cause of Conscience, upon a second Tryal, is found now more 
apparently and more notoriously guilty, etc., etc. By R. Williams of Prov- 
idence in New-England. London, Printed for Giles Calvert, and are to be 
sold at the black-spread-Eagle, at the West-end of Pauls, 1652. 

It is a small quarto of three hundred and seventy-three pages. 
Two copies are in the Library of Brown University, one, a 
presentation copy from Williams to his friend, Dr. John Clarke, 
of Newport. 

Roger Williams published his fifth work in 1652. It was a 
pamphlet of forty-four small quarto pages, entitled : 

The Hireling Ministry None of Christs, or A Discourse touching the 
Propagating the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Humbly Presented to such Pious 
and Honourable Hands, whom the present Debate thereof concerns. By 
Roger Williams, of Providence, in New England. London Printed in the 
second Moneth, 1652. 

The purpose of this work was to oppose a legal establishment of 
religion, and the compulsory support of the clergy. An original 
copy is in the Library of Brown University, two copies are in 
the American Antiquarian Society Library at Worcester, and one 
in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R. I. 
The same year he issued a pamphlet entitled : 

Experiments of Spiritual Life & Health, And their Preservatives, In 
which the weakest Child of God may get Assurance of his Spirituall Life 
and Blessednesse, and the Strongest may finde proportionable Discoveries 
of his Christian Growth, and the means of it. By Roger Williams of 
Providence in New-England. London, Printed, in the Second Month, 1652. 

This book is in the form of a letter addressed to his wife, upon 
her recovery from a dangerous sickness. A limited edition was 
published, comprising sixty small quarto pages. For years no 
original copy has been found. There is an original copy now in 
the John Carter Brown Library at Providence, R. I. 

From time to time local difficulties arose in the various towns. 
Ambitious men, seeking their personal welfare, rather than the 







The 

Hireling Miniftry| 

3\orje of fci 

CHRIST& 

OR . 

p A Difcourfe touching the Propa- || 

^ gating the Go^d of C h r i s t ^J* 
R» Jesus. 

Humbly Trefented to fuch Thus 
and Honourable Hands, Vphotn %f 
the prefentDehate thereof con 
cerns. 












&^ 



^/ROCER WILLIAMS, of Providence 



in New England. 






London Printed in the fecond ^1 
! Moneth^ i6^z. ^ 



EXPERIMENTS 

OF 

Spiritual Life & Health, 

And their 

PRESERVATIVES 

In which the TPeakeJi Child of Go^ may 

get ^urmce of his Spirituall Life 
and BUjJednejfe 

And the Strongefi may finde proportionable Difco» 
verks of his Chrifi/att Growth^ and the means of it. 

By ^g€r Williams of Providence in 






London, Printed, in the Second Month, 
1652. 



SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A COMMONWEALTH 89 

public weal, disturbed the serenity of the colony. Certain settlers 
at Pawtuxet sought to be part of the Bay Colony ; Coddington, 
at Newport, desired to be governor for life of the Islands of 
Rhode Island and Conanicut. Two rival assemblies were organ- 
ized at Newport and Providence. Roger Williams used his in- 
fluence and greatly helped to solve the vexing problems. A 
new colony, with a new and revolutionary ideal, was being born, 
and the birth-throes were great, owing to the fact that they were 
pioneers in this work of building a democracy. They had no 
illustrious precedent to follow. It is a marvel that their dif- 
ficulties were not more and greater. 

In 1656, the United Colonies urged the Providence Colony to 
banish all Quakers from their realm. They replied that "FREE- 
DOM of Conscience is the ground of our charter, and it shall he 
inaintained." In 1658, the United Colonies threatened the Provi- 
dence Colony with exclusion from all intercourse or trade with 
all the rest of the colonies, if they did not banish the Quakers. 
Meanwhile the Bay Colony was unrelenting in its persecution of 
the Quakers. Some were banished, and a few were put to 
death. 

In September, 1658, Cromwell died. His son Richard suc- 
ceeded him, and after a short time retired. Charles II ascended 
the English throne in June, 1660. Immediately all acts of the 
Parliament under Cromwell were repealed, and Providence Plan- 
tations lost its charter. The Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut 
colonies immediately asserted anew their claims for the territory 
about the Narragansett Bay. Dr. John Clarke, of Newport, was 
in England representing the claims of the Providence Colony, 
and, in 1663, secured for it a new royal charter. The old Colony 
of Providence Plantations ceased to exist. The new colony was 
called " Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." The char- 
ter defined the bounds of the colony, gave it freedom in all re- 
ligious matters, a system of government, a power to organize 
courts and to enforce their decisions, power to raise a standing 
army of defense, and other essential things. The new seal of 
the colony was " Rhode Island and Providence Plantations " with 
an anchor and the word, " Hope," above it. 

Roger Williams protected the Quakers by granting them in 
his colony a shelter from persecutions. However, he was never 



n 



George Fox 

Digg'douc of his 

BurrovveSj 

Or an Offer of 

DISPUTATION 

On founccftPropofills made this laft Summer leji (fo cali'J^ 
{in:oG fex then prefent on Rode-jjland 
in N6r9- England^ by iJ.ff. 

As alfo hofW (G. Fox flily departing) the Difputation trent on 
b^ing manafjed three dayes at Newport on Rode-Ifland, and 
one day at Providenct, between 7o^« J^/«^j, John En. ntt^ and 
Willi Am Edmundfon on the one part, and Rjy. on the other. 

In which Hwny ^«ofxWo«/ out of (7. /"o.v & JEd. Bhrroms Book 
tn f o/>« are alleadged. 

WITH AN 

A P E N D I X 

Of foroc fcorcs of C, f . his firnplc lame Anfwcrs to his Oppo- 

ficcsinthaC, Book, quoted and rcplyed to 

By R. W, oi Providence in ^,E» 




The Model of a Southern New England Indian Village 




Oval House of Birch Bark and Mats 

Women Smoking Fish 



Corn-field 




Round House of Grass Long Council Chamber Making a Long House 

Indian Men Feeding Dogs 



Models of Indian Village in Roger Williams Park Museum 

Courtesy of " Providence Magazine " 



SUUL-LIiJERTV AT HOME IX A COMMUXWEALTII 93 

friendly to their peculiar tenets and assailed them in debates 
and pamphlets. When George Fox, their founder, was in Amer- 
ica in 1672, Williams challenged him to a debate. A delay in 
getting the challenge to Fox, who had sailed for England, did 
not leave the debate unaccepted. Three Rhode Island Quakers 
undertook the task. Roger Williams rowed the thirty miles to 
Newport and for three days debated with all the characteristic 
bitterness of debates of that period. They adjourned to complete 
the debate at Providence. Williams is seen in the worst light 
here and has been greatly criticized for the strong language he 
used in opposing these Quakers. We should never forget that 
the Puritans went far beyond strong language, in persecuting 
some to death and in exiling others. Both sides claimed a vic- 
tory in the debate, which was perpetuated in pamphlets, issued 
at its completion. Williams wrote one, entitled, " George Fox 
Digg'd out of his Burrowes." Fox replied with one, entitled, " A 
New-England Fire-Brand Quenched." Fox's book is a cjuarto of 
489 pages. Williams' book, a small quarto of 327 pages, was 
printed in Boston, 1676. The only original copy known to exist 
is the one in the Library of Harvard College. 

Roger Williams wrote many letters, the originals of which 
were widely scattered. Many of these have been collected and 
printed in a volume by the Rhode Island Historical Society. In 
one of these letters, to Governor Bradford, of Boston, he refers 
to a collection of discourses which he had reduced to w^riting. 
These sermons, with treatises written prior to his banishment, 
are probably lost forever. 

King Philip's War 

Canonicus died, June 4, 1647. Alassasoit died in 1660. leaving 
two sons, Wamsutta and Metacon, or as they were nicknamed 
by the English, Alexander and Philip. The former succeeded his 
father. On a return from Plymouth Alexander died suddenly, 
and Philip suspected that he was poisoned. This, however, was 
not the fact. The Narragansetts had not forgotten the death 
or murder of ]\Iiantonomo, and the Indians generally felt that 
the English were gradually crowding them out of their own 
domains. Philip took advantage of this feeling and organized a 
war which had for its object the complete extermination of all 
II 



A NEW-ENGLAND- 

Being an. 

ANSWER 

UNTO A 

Slanderous Book, Entituled-, gEO^GE FOX 

Digged out of his Burrows^ ^c. Pnntcd at £<?/?<?« inthc Year 
1676. by Jiogcy Wilb'dms of Trovi^eyjcc in Nrxe-Enghnd. 

Which \\tDeMcateth to the KING^ with Defiirs, That^ if 
thcMoft-High/'/<'rf5r, Old ^^JNcw-England mij/FlouriJh, vhen 
the Pope Cx Mahomet^Rornc (^ Conft-anfinople are in their Jfhes. 

Of a DISPUTE upon XIV. of his Prcpofalsheld and debated 
betvjixt htm, thefaid^^.g^ Williatm-^ onthc one pait, and 

JchnStuhs^ yfilh'am Edmunclfin and j<}hn Burnyeat on the other. 
^t Providence znd Nexvport in Rodt-J/IanJy in the Year 1672. 

IN which hisC^ri/sai-e Refuted, & his Refie^pnsRcpvovcd. 



Kti a^too parte. 



As ALSO, 

An ylNSWET^tol^W's JPPETiD IX^Scc. 

WrTH A 

POST' SCRIPT Confuting hisBlafphemonsAffcrtions, 
viz. Of the BJoodofChn<iy that was SheJ', its being CoTnipribIc 
<jn<i Corrupted,' Andthat^iU^^onWAS hyd M^n, th^trvas Cor- 
nipriblc, ^c . Whei-e-iintQ is added a 

CATALOGUE of his Knilety^LieSy Scorn & Blif/hfjemies: And 
Hisrr MPORIZI NG SPIRIT m^Scrnanitd^- Alfo^fhc 

LETTERS of W.Coddin^ofi o? Rcde-lpnd, snd'R'Scot of 
Prcvidenct in New- England ironccming /?• W. And LaftlySomc 

TEST I M N T ES ofJntientS< M a devn Anthers concem- 
m^^t LIOHT^ScniPTV RES^V LES^thcJOVL of Alan. 



By GEORGE-EOX and JOHN EVRNTEA E 



Printed in the Year MDC. LXXTX. 




Rhode Island Historical Society Museum 




Apple Tree Root from the Grave of Roger Williams 




Grave of Roger Williams 



SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A COMMONWEALTH 9/ 

the English settlements. This war, opening in Plymouth, 1675, 
lasted more than a year. Twelve out of the ninety New England 
towns were completely destroyed and forty others were the scene 
of fire and slaughter. A thousand strong men lost their lives in 
addition to a large number of helpless women and children who 
were tomahawked. Rhode Island, for the first time, was ex- 
posed to the hostile attacks of the Indians. ]\Iany of the in- 
habitants, fearing the impending disaster, had joined the army 
of attack against the Indians. In retaliation for this. Providence 
was attacked, and twenty-nine houses were burned. One of 
them contained the town records, part of which were saved by 
being thrown into a pond, from which they were afterward re- 
covered. When the Indians appeared on the heights above Provi- 
dence, Roger Williams, unarmed, went out to counsel with them. 
He urged them to stop the warfare, telling them that the English 
king would come to the assistance of the colonists and, with 
greater numbers, overpower the Indians. They replied : 

Let them come, we are ready for them. But as for you. Brother 
W'ilHams, you are a good man, }ou have been kind to us many years, not 
a hair of your head shall be touched. , 

He returned to a house which had been converted into a fort. It 
was not touched, but the town otherwise was destroyed. Most 
of the citizens of the mainland tied to Rhode Island and Newport. 
The doom of the Indians was sounded, the war was put down, 
and the leaders were captured or slain. Immediately after the 
war the work of rebuilding commenced. Houses were built 
larger and more substantially. 

Roger \\'illiams for many years had a trading-place, where 
he did business with the Indians. This store was near the present 
village of Wickford. His profits, he tells us, were five hundred 
dollars a year. The foundations of this old building are still 
intact, with a new superstructure over them. Late in life he 
made monthly preaching visits to this place. When too old to 
do this, he planned the publication of his sermons for the natives. 
Roger Williams was the original missionary to the North Amer- 
ican Indians, antedating the illustrious Eliot by thirteen years. 
Williams' Indian Bible is in the John Hay Library, Provi- 
dence, R. I. 



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WUTTESTAMENTUM 



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J^ U L-L O R D U M U N 

JESUS CHRIST B 

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Ulcd by Samnel ^rem and tJHarmailHke Johnpxt^ doa 

MDCLXI. |9» 



New Testament Title-page of Roger Williams' Indian Bible 



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«| CONTAINING THE 

2| O L D T E^ T A-M EH/T 

21 AHD THE NEtV. ; 

21 (^'^^^Yranflitedioto the ^ ^ 



LANGUAO 

r Oidetcd tfli^x Printed by the CtiMftnnt 4 tlm Vmtti 

in ^EiV'EirV LAND, 'j , 

At the^Cbarge, and with tbe Con&m of tte" 







Indian Bible Used by Roger Williams, the Pioneer Missionary to the 
American Indians 



SOUL-LIBERTY AT HOME IN A COMMONWEALTH lOI 

In 1683, Roger Williams died. All the inhabitants of Provi- 
dence turned out to honor his memory. The coffin was carried 
on the shoulders of his friends, and his earthly remains were 
laid to rest on his own property, on the slope of the hill east 
of his residence and the spring. An apple tree grew above the 
grave. The roots drew from the remains their nourishment and 
followed the shape of the skeleton and the leg's. Today these 
same roots are preserved in the Rhode Island Historical Society's 
collection. Reuben A. Guild describes this in the following 
manner : 

Still further up the hill among the trees of his orchard, was the family 
burial ground. Crossing Benefit Street and passing into the rear of the 
house of the late Sullivan Dorr, a few feet from the stable door, is the orig- 
inal grave of Roger Williams. It is covered b}' a finished cap of a heavy 
stone pillar. Here for nearly two hundred j-ears slept the remains of the 
Apostle of Religious Libert}-. In March, i860, the grave was opened, and 
the dust, for that was all that remained of the mortal body, was care- 
fully placed in an urn and deposited in Mr. Randall's family tomb in the 
North Burial Ground. Mrs. Williams' grave was also visited, and a lock 
of braided hair was all that was discovered. At the bottom of Roger 
Williams' grave the root of an apple tree had turned out of its way to 
enter in at the head. Following the position of the body to the thighs, 
it had turned, now divided, to follow each leg to the feet, tender 
fibers shooting out in various directions. 

Roger Williams died a poor man. His interest in the needy 
and distressed had kept him constantly poor. Ambition formed 
no part of his personal life. His ambitions were for the larger 
group of distressed souls. A prophet is rarely appreciated in 
his own age by his contemporaries. Posterity, in later days, 
usually discovers the greatness and genius of the man and the 
ideal he realized. Today that ideal is the secret of America's 
greatness and one that has given her distinction among the 
nations. Shortly before Williams' death there was a discussion 
relative to dividing up the common lands. Williams wrote to 
the Town of Providence a plea, which is characteristic of the 
spirit of the man : 

For all experience tells us that public peace and love is better than 
abundance of corn and cattle. I have only one motion and petition which 
I earnestly pray the town to lay to heart, as ever they look for a blessing 



I02 ROGER WILLIAMS 

from God upon the town, on your families, your corn and cattle, and 
your children after you ; it is this, that after you have got over the 
black brook of some soul bondage yourself, you tear not down the bridge 
after you, by leaving no small pittance for distressed souls that may come 
after vou. 



V 



FROM SOUL-LIBERTY TO ABSOLUTE 
CIVIL LIBERTY 



Rhode Island's Gift 

Last of the thirteen, smallest of them all, 
What canst thou bring to this world's festival, 
Where all thy sisters come with pride and pov. er, 
And bring each one a princess' generous dower 
Of gold and gems, and fruits and precious woods, 
And joyous tribute of their costly goods? 
What can we bring? No outward show of gain, 
No pomp of state ; we bring the sons of men ! 

Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow gold, 
And gems, and all that's fair and fine. 
And heap them all, the new, the old, 
Before our country's stately shrine. 
Bring hardihood from north and east, 
Bring beauty from the south and west, 
Bring valor to adorn the feast. 
Bring all that has withstood time's test. 
We grudge you not the riches rare. 
We grudge you not j'our acres broad. 
We bring j-ou for our noble share 
The liberty to worship God. 

— Caroline Hacard, Pooii read cm "Rhode Island Day" at World's 
CoUunhian Exposition, Chicago, October 5, 1893. 



FROM SOUL-LIBERTY TO ABSOLUTE 
CIVIL LIBERTY 



THE ideal of democracy grew in all the New England colonies 
and led eventually to the American Revolution and the es- 
tablishment of the United States of America. Rhode Is- 
land, however, in the century prior to the Revolution, had never 
given up her advocacy of soul-liberty, and thus the Revolution 
was to her a greater struggle than to the other colonies. This 
distinct feature will be seen in a study of the real successors of 
Roger Williams, in the struggle for religious liberty. Therefore 
it is interesting to note some of the outstanding events in the 
history of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, previous to 
the Revolutionary War. 

In June, i/OO, a lot was set aside for a training-ground, a 
burial-ground, and other public uses. Thus originated the North 
Burial Ground, the first public burial-ground in the colony. Be- 
fore this each family had buried on its own land. Not until 
1760, when Benefit Street was laid through the burial-grounds of 
many of the citizens, including the land where Roger Williams 
first settled, did they come to use in a general way this North 
Burial Ground. Then many bodies were removed to the new 
place for burial. 

The second house of worship to be erected in the colony, in 
1704, was the Friends' Meeting House, in what is now Lincoln. 
It is still standing, although with an extensive addition. The 
Friends' ^Meeting House in Providence was erected about the 
same time. The First Congregational Church was organized in 
1720, a meeting-house being erected in 1723. It was on the 
site of the present county court-house. In 1722, the Episcopalians 
erected their first church building. It was called King's Church, 
and was on the site of the present St. John's Church on North 
Alain Street. In 1798, the Methodists organized their first 
church, building their first meeting-house in 1816 at the corner 
of Aborn and Washington Streets. The Roman Catholics com- 



I06 ROGER WILLIAMS 

menccd their work in 1827, meeting in Mechanics' Hall, after- 
ward in the old Town House. From the very start no discour- 
agement was given to any church to organize in Rhode Island. 
During this same period of time Baptists were hindered in other 
colonies. 

In 1660, the proprietors of the colony ordered the setting aside 
of one hundred acres of upland and six of meadows to be re- 
served for the maintenance of a school. In 1696, a piece of land 
on Dexter Lane, or Stamper's Hill, was set apart for a school. 
This schoolhouse was built about the year 1697, about fifty feet 
north of Olney Street, on the east side of Stamper's Street. It 
was used for about fifty years. The schoolmaster probably re- 
ceived all of his compensation from the scholars. A lot on the 
end of the Court House Parade was left for a school building. 
The first reference to a school house on this lot is found in the 
town records for 1752. The town leased this schoolhouse to a 
schoolmaster. In 1769, the first free school was established on 
King's Street, now ]\Ieeting Street. This building is used now as 
a fresh-air school. 

Brown University 

As early as 1762 a movement was instituted by James Manning 
of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, to establish in Rhode Island a 
university on the broad basis of religious freedom, but under the 
special care of the Baptists. A charter, to be presented to the 
General Assembly in 1763, was prepared by Rev. Ezra Stiles, a 
Congregational minister at Newport. When the document was 
ready for presentation, it was noticed that the governing power 
was to be given to a presbyterian body. That occasioned post- 
ponement. A charter was granted, however, in February, 1764, 
under the name of " The Trustees and Fellows of the College or 
University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations in New England in America." The corporation was 
given power to change its name. It organized with James r^Ian- 
ning as president. Active teaching work was commenced at 
Warren in 1766. The founding of this university was an event 
touching not only the life of Rhode Island, but of the whole 
country. As a Baptist movement, it was first proposed by Morg"an 
Edwards in 1762, at the Philadelphia Baptist Association. James 



FROM SOUL-LIBERTV TO CIVIL LIBERTY 10/ 

Manning came from the little church at Scotch Plains, New Jer- 
sey, and from a Baptist Association to the only place in Amer- 
ica, at that time, where a Baptist university could be established. 
The Baptists desired the controlling power, but not the whole 
power of administration, in order to preserve their great prin- 
ciple of religious freedom. According to the original charter, 
twenty-two of the thirty-six trustees were to be Baptists, five 
Quakers, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians. Of 
the twelve fellows, eight were to be Baptist, the rest indefinitely 
of any or all denominations. The following extract shows the 
Baptist ideal : 

into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any 
religious tests, but, on the contrary, all the members hereof, shall forever 
enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience; and 
that the places of professors, tutors, and all other officers, the President 
alone excepted, shall be free and open for all denominations of Prot- 
estants, and the j-ouths of all religious denominations shall and may be 
admitted to the equal advantages, emoluments, and honors of the uni- 
versity; and that the sectarian differences shall not make any part of the 
public and classical instructions. 

Its early history is interesting. There was but one student 
during its first year, the Rev. William Rogers, of Newport, then 
fourteen years old. In 1767, four new students enrolled. The 
first years of the college were spent at Warren, where Dr. James 
Manning, the president, was the acting pastor of a Baptist church 
recently organized. In 1769, the first class of seven was ready 
for graduation and the first commencement was held on Sep- 
tember 7, 1769. 

The various towns of the colony contended earnestly to have 
the college permanently located with them. Newport considered 
that her large gifts to the college were sufficient to give her the 
preference. Providence, being a stronger center for the Baptists, 
won, and, in 1770, the college was moved to that city. The old 
brick schoolhouse, near the foot of ]Meeting Street, was the first 
building used by the college. The students boarded in private 
families at a dollar and a quarter a week. The building com- 
mittee soon selected a better location for the school and a better 
place for housing the student body. IMorgan Edwards said of 
the site finally selected : 



I08 ROGER WILLIAMS 

Commanding a prospect of the Town of Providence below, of the 
Narragansett Bay and Island and of an extensive country, variegated with 
hills and dales, woods and plains. . . Surely this spot was made for a 
seat of the Muses. 

The first building, one sufificient for the needs of the college for 
the following fifty years, was University Hall, modeled after 
Nassau Hall of Princeton. The upper two stories were added 
after the Revolutionary war. For six years, during that great 
struggle, the hall was used as barracks and hospital for the com- 
bined American and French troops. In 1775, the present First 
Baptist Church Meeting House was erected, '' for the public 
worship of Almighty God and to hold commencements in." 
Since 1775 until the present time, with the exceptions of the years 
1804 and 1832, this church has been used for the commencement 
exercises. On its platform illustrious students have received 
their degrees and have gone forth to bless the world. The 
presidents of Brown University, seated in the James ^Manning 
chair, have presided at the commencements in the historic Bap- 
tist Meeting House, and have given public honor to men who in 
turn have honored the university and city. George Washington 
received the honorary degree of LL. D. in 1790. Among her illus- 
trious graduates none is greater than Adoniram Judson, our 
pioneer American and Baptist foreign missionary. 

Doctor ^Manning died in 1791, and was buried in the North 
Burial Ground. The corporation voted that same year. 

That the children of the Jews may be admitted into this institution 
and entirely enjoy the freedom of their own religion, without any con- 
straint or imposition whatever. 

The name of the college was changed from Rhode Island to 
Brown University, in 1804, in honor of Nicholas Brown, whose 
liberal gifts to the college were much appreciated. He was a 
trustee and in his lifetime gave about $100,000 to the college. In 
1 82 1 the increasing number of students made another building 
imperative, and Nicholas Brown gave this needed structure, Hope 
College, as a gift to the institution. 

The second president of Brown University was Jonathan 
Maxcy, who served from 1792 until 1802. In these ten years 
two hundred and twenty-seven were graduated, sixty-six claim- 




Original Home of Brown University, in Providence, R. I. 






iiiiif I i ■ 

1 1 HIE Hi 

mill III 




Brown University in Early Nineteenth Century 



FROM SOUL-LIBERTY TO CIVIL LIBERTY III 

ing law as their profession, and fifty-six entering the ministry. 
Asa Messer was the third president, serving from 1802 until his 
resignation in 1826. His membership was in the First Baptist 
Church, but his views, after 181 5, were Unitarian. Acts of 
vandalism, such as breaking into the library, beating down the 
pulpit, and breaking windows, were such that he took it as a 
protest against his position and finally resigned. 

The next president was Francis Wayland. He completely 
reorganized the University. He introduced the elective system, 
and oft'ered several practical courses. The college grounds were 
laid out. Two new buildings were erected. Manning Hall, a gift 
of Nicholas Brown, and named in honor of the first president, 
was built in 1840. In this Doric structure the library found a 
home on the first floor and the chapel on the second. Rhode 
Island Hall was erected shortly afterward, $10,000 being raised 
by Rhode Island men and women, and the balance of $12,500 
being largely the gift of Nicholas Brown. Doctor Wayland's 
presidency came to an end by his death in 1855. He was buried 
in North Burial Ground. Following him came Barnes Sears, 
Alexis Gaswell, Ezekiel Oilman Robinson, Elisha Benjamin An- 
drews, and the present president, W. H. P. Faunce, since June, 
1899. Today the college has more than a thousand students, 
about thirty buildings, and an endowment of more than four 
million dollars. Brown University was the pioneer of the hun- 
dreds of schools, colleges, and universities which the Baptists 
were destined to have in the years that followed. These are not 
limited to one State, but are scattered all over our country. 

Pilgrims to Providence, the birthplace of religious liberty in 
America, should not fail to visit those buildings which contain 
sacred relics of the long and hard struggle for soul-liberty and 
political freedom in America. 

The present million-dollar City Hall, at the west end of Ex- 
change Place, in Providence, was erected in the period 1874 to 
1878. In the office of the Recorder of Deeds can be seen " the 
original deeds " from the Indian chiefs to Roger Williams in 
1636, also his letter transferring to his loving friends, " a share 
of the new territory." The original Compact of Government 
is here also, and there is a bust of Roger Williams over the en- 
trance. 



112 ROGER WILLIAMS 

The Old State House, situated on Benefit Street, is a build- 
ing which can well vie with Faneuil Hall in Boston and Inde- 
pendence Hall in Philadelphia as a " Cradle of Liberty." Built 
in 1763, it was originally occupied by the Rhode Island Colonial 
Assembly, who here on May 4, 1776, two months previous to the 
Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, adopted the famous 
act renouncing allegiance to Great Britain. This fact is com- 
memorated by a bronze tablet and also by an annual commemora- 
tion in all the public schools of Providence. 

The New State House, or " Marble Palace," on the crest of 
Capitol Hill, completed in 1902 at a cost of $3,200,000, is built 
of white Georgia marble, and has for a distinguishing feature 
one of the few marble domes existing in the world. This in- 
scription is on the south front of the Capitol : 

To hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may 
stand and best be maintained, \vith full Liberty in Religious Concernments. 

On the north side, we read. 

Providence Plantations, Founded by Roger Williams, 1636, Providence, 
Portsmouth, Newport, incorporated by Parliament, 1643, Rhode Island, 
Providence Plantations, obtained Royal Charter 1663. In General Assem- 
bly declared a Sovereign State, May 4th, 1776. 

The inscription around the interior of the dome is a Latin quota- 
tion from Tacitus. Translated it is : 

Rare felicity of the times when It Is permitted to think as you like, and 
say what you think. 

In the State Giamber is Gilbert Stuart's rare full-length portrait 
of General Washington. In the Secretary of State's office is the 
original charter, granted in 1663, under which the colony and 
State were governed imtil 1843. In a subbasement there is a 
collection of State historical exhibits, originally collected for the 
Jamestown Exposition. On the dome of the State House there 
is a colossal bronze statue of " Independent ^lan, or the Genius 
of Religious Liberty," designed by Brewster. 

The Court House is on the corner of Benefit and College 
Streets. In its corridor there is a historical painting by C. F. 




Capitol Building in Providence, Where the Charter is Kept 




City Hall, Providence, Where the Compact, Indian Deed, and 
Letter of Transference are Kept 



FROM SOUL-LIBERTY TO CIVIL LIBERTY II5 

Grant, picturing " The return of Roger Williams with the first 
charter for the Colony in 1644." 

Rhode Island in the Revolutionary War 

Rhode Island was the first to strike a blow for civil liberty 
as she was the first in the struggle for religious liberty. She was 
last, however, to adopt the Constitution of the United States. 
She hesitated to surrender to the federal government the liberties 
enjoyed under her charter, the most liberal ever granted to a 
colony. She has a right to be proud of her record, before, during, 
and after the Revolutionary war. E. Benjamin Andrews opened 
his case for Rhode Island's recognition with these words : 

States are great or small according to their miles, and as the little birth 
town of the Christ, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, was not least among 
the princes of Judah, so Rhode Island, diminutive as she is physically, is 
far from least among the princely Constituents of this republic. 

The history of Rhode Island proves that the best compatriot 
political liberty ever had was absolute religious liberty. 

Rhode Island was the first to strike the name of king from 
the charter of her liberties, thus becoming the first sovereign in- 
dependent State in all the New World. 

Rhode Island was the first to recommend the permanent estab- 
lishment of a Continental Congress, in town meeting assembled, 
May 17, 1774, and in General xA.ssembly, June 15, 1774. she ap- 
pointed Samuel Ward and Ezek Hopkins her first delegates 
thereto. 

Rhode Island was also the first, by overt act. to renounce 
allegiance to George III of England. She was first to instruct 
her ofiicers to disregard the Stamp Act and to ensure them indem- 
nity for so doing. In 1765, she explicitly declared that in herself 
alone was vested the right of local taxation. 

Rhode Island w^as first to fire a gun against the dominion of 
England. The first blood of the Revolutionary war was spilt in 
Narragansett Bay. Lexington was fought /\pril 19, 1775 ; the 
Boston Tea Party was on December 16, 1773 ; Providence men, 
after perfecting their plans at the Sabin Tavern, Planet and 
South ]\Iain Streets, rowed down the river, and on June 10, 1772, 
sent up the Gaspee in flames. 



Il6 ROGER WILLIAMS 

On July 19, 1769, the men of Newport sunk His Majesty's 
sloop, Liberty. Rhode Island was the first to establish an Amer- 
ican navy. She gave the command to Abraham Whipple, who 
forthwith captured the first war prize (the tender of the frigate 
Rose, then off Newport). After the war of independence was 
under way, Rhode Island was the first to recommend and urge 
upon Congress the establishment of a Continental navy. Con- 
gress chose a Rhode Islander to work out the plans. Ezek 
Hopkins, a Providence man, was appointed commander-in-chief. 
Three-fourths of all the officers were from Rhode Island. These 
men were the vikings of the American Revolution. Ezek Hopkins' 
home is still preserved on Admiral Street. There is a monument 
to him at his grave in Hopkins Square, corner Branch Avenue 
and Charles Street. 

In proportion to her size none of the other States can compare 
with Rhode Island in the amount given to the Continental loan. 
Her citizens, unlocking their purses, freely furnished the sinews 
of war. She contributed seven times as much as South Carolina, 
whose population was three times as large ; one and a half times 
as much as IVIaryland, whose population was four times as 
great; twice as much as Virginia, w^ith a population eight times 
larger. 

Rhode Island contributed proportionately her share of men to 
the great struggle. Rhode Island men were in every great battle 
under Washington. Rhode Island has been greatly criticized 
for not quickly adopting the Constitution. She was the last to 
adopt it. Her conception of religious and civic liberty in com- 
bination was such that she was not willing to lose easily the 
liberty which she had obtained for herself and which she freely 
advocated for others. Her part in the great struggle was so 
great that her motive for delay in adopting the Constitution 
should never be questioned. Her ideal of liberty, unique to Rhode 
Island then, is the generally accepted one now throughout Amer- 
ica and back of every great politicial reform in lands beyond our 
borders. 

Ex-Governor Russell Brown, on Rhode Island Day at the 
World's Columbian Exposition, said : 

The histor}' of our State is a birthright which neither lands nor gold 
can buy, for full as it is of stirring and passionate events, there is not an 



FROM SOUL-LIDERTV TO CIVIL LinERTY II7 

incident in our annals that can bring the scarlet of shame to the cheek 
of civilized man. Roger Williams the first settler, the thrice-exiled friend 
of the weak and oppressed, by his revolt against Puritan intolerance and 
his sacrifice for soul liberty, baptized Rhode Island's early days with glory 
sufficient for anv State. 



VI 



THE TORCH-BEARERS OF THE IDEAL 

OF ROGER WILLIAMS UNTIL LIBERTY 

ENLIGHTENED THE WORLD 



I Ijelieve all our Baptist ministers in town, except two, and most of our 
brethren in the country were on the side of the Americans in the late 
dispute. . . To this hour we believe that the independence of America 
will, for a while, secure the liberty of this countr}-, but if that continent 
had been reduced, Britain would not have long been free. — Doctor 
Rippon, of London, E)i</laiid, to President Mannhu/, of Rhode Island 
College, it.'ritten in I/S4. 

Nor need any one dream that Jefferson and Madison could have carried 
this measure by their genius and influence. They were opposed by many 
men whose transcendent services, or unequalled oratory, or wealth, posi- 
tion, financial interests, or intense prejudices would have enabled them 
easily to resist their unsupported ' assaults. Like a couple of first-class 
engineers on a tender with a train attached, but no locomotive, would 
Jefferson and Madison have appeared without the Baptists. They fur- 
nished the locomotive for these skilled engineers which drew the train 
of religious liberty through every persecuting enactment in the penal 
code of Virginia. — Jl'in. Catheart. D. D., in " The Baptists and the Amer- 
ican Revolution." 

The Baptists w^ere the first and onlj^ religious denomination that struck 
for independence from Great Britain, and the first and only one that 
made a move for religious liberty before independence was declared. . . 
Of those who took part in the struggle for religious liberty, the Baptists 
were the only denomination that maintained a consistent record and held 
out without wavering until the end — until every vestige of the old estab- 
lishment had been obliterated by the sale of the glebes. — Dr. Charles 
James, in "Documentary History of the Struggle for Religious Liberty 
in T'irginia." 



THE TORCH-BEARERS OF THE IDEAL 

OF ROGER WILLIAMS UNTIL LIBERTY 

ENLIGHTENED THE WORLD 



WE have seen the early strug-gles of Roger Williams. We 
have seen the halo of glory which clusters ahout the State 
he founded. We have seen his place in the plans of a 
Divine providence. We have also seen his place in the proces- 
sion of heroes who held aloft the torch of relig'ious and soul- 
liberty throughout the ages. When by death, he was compelled 
to drop that torch, others took it up and continued the procession 
until the first amendment to our National Constitution became a 
fact of history. The Baptists led the historic movement in all 
the colonies which stood for this principle of " Religious Liberty." 
Oscar S. Straus says : 

The Baptists . . . had a much more enlightened and advanced view : 
they held that Christianity should propagate itself by its own spiritual 
force ; that the civil government was entirely apart and distinct and 
should have no control over conscience, or power to inflict punishment 
for spiritual censures. 

Professor Gervinus, professor at Heidelberg, Germany, about 
the year 1850, published a work, in which he referred to Wil- 
liams and his ideal : 

Roger Williams urged an entire liberty of conscience in Massachu- 
setts. He was obliged to fly from the country, and in 1636 he founded 
a small new society in Rhode Island upon the principles of entire liberty 
of conscience. It was prophesied that the democratic attempts to obtam 
a general elective franchise and entire religious liberty would be of short 
duration. But these institutions have spread from that petty state over 
the whole union. They superseded the aristocratic commencements of 
Carolina and New York, the High-church part of Virginia, the theocracy 
in Massachusetts, and the monarchy throughout America ; they have given 
laws to one quarter of the globe; and, dreaded for their moral influence, 
they stand in the background of every democratic struggle in Europe. 

121 



122 ROGER WILLIAMS 

For the publication of such sentiments, Professor Gervinus was 
tried at Mannheim and sentenced to four months' imprisonment 
and to have his books pubHcly burned. 

Back of political progress there must be spiritual strength. 
Back of the final victory of religious liberty in America there 
was not only the glorious example of Rhode Island as a political 
demonstration but the persistent propagation of the ideals in all 
the States. This was chiefly the task of the Baptists, many of 
whose churches could trace their origin to settlers from Rhode 
Island. 

During the Colonial period, the laws of ^Massachusetts and 
Virginia relating to soul-liberty were most severe ; those in 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, the most lenient, outside of Rhode 
Island. 

In ^Massachusetts the Baptist sentiment did not die out with 
the banishment of Roger Williams. In 1640, Rev. ]Mr. Chauncey 
advocated the immersion of believers and also of infants. Later 
President Dunster, of Cambridge College, went further and de- 
nounced the whole system of infant baptism. About the same 
time, Lady Moody, of Lynn, denied infant baptism. In 1644, a 
poor man by the name of Painter, reaching the same conclusion, 
refused to have his child baptized. The court interfered and 
the man was tied up and whipped. On November 13. 1644, two 
months after Williams arrived in Boston, en route to Providence, 
with the charter, the Alassachusetts Bay Colony passed a law 
against the Baptists, in which they were described as " The in- 
cendiaries of commonwealths, the troublers of churches.*' They 
ordered that all who " openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of 
infants shall be sentenced to banishment." The General Court 
issued an order in 1644 banishing the founders of the Boston 
Baptist Church. In 165 1, Obadiah Holmes, John Clarke, and 
John Crandall came to Lynn, ^Massachusetts, from Newport, 
Rhode Island. They were holding a service in 'Sir. Witter's 
house, about two miles out from Lynn. Air. Clarke was preach- 
ing from Revelation 3 : 10. The ser\dce was broken up by the 
arrival of two constables, who, with clamorous tongues, inter- 
rupted the discourse and arrested the preachers. The prisoners 
were held in Lynn until the morning-, when they were taken to 
the Boston prison. Two weeks later, they were sentenced to 







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124 ROGER WILLIAMS 

pay heavy fines. The fines of Clarke and Crandall were paid by 
friends. Hohiies refused any assistance in paying his fine of 
thirty pounds and was pubHcly whipped with thirty lashes from 
a three-corded whip. Thirteen others, who sympathized with 
these brethren, were arrested and were ordered to pay a fine of 
forty shillings each or take ten lashes. John Hazel, an old man 
from Rehoboth, was whipped and died a few days afterward. 
Clarke published the story of this incident in " 111 Xewes from 
New-England "" — an original copy is in the John Carter Brown 
Library, Providence, R. I. Cotton was the religious leader in 
Boston, back of this persecution. In 1680 the doors of the Bap- 
tist meeting-house in Boston were nailed up by the authorities. 
Finally the Baptists in Boston won some freedom, which, how- 
ever, was denied to other Baptist churches throughout the State. 
Isaac Backus was the leader among the Massachusetts Baptists 
for soul-liberty. With President Manning, he appealed to the 
^Massachusetts delegates at the Continental Congress to provide 
in the Constitution for separation of Church and State. John 
Adams replied to them : " They might as well turn the heavenly 
bodies out of their annual and diurnal courses as to expect they 
would give up their establishment." This spirit of opposition was 
continued until 1833, ""^ which year the last vestige of oppressive 
religious intolerance was removed from the statute-books of 
Massachusetts. 

In Virginia, the opposition to the Baptist movement was bitter 
and unrelenting. The early settlers of Virginia left England, 
when their church, the Established Church of England, had won 
a complete victory over all other persuasions. The Virginians 
sought to duplicate in the new land the spirit of the victors across 
the sea and make religion uniform in their colony. Laws were 
passed against popish recusants as early as 1643. Other laws 
were passed by their assembly between the years 1659 and 1663 
against those who failed to haVe their children baptized. The 
Quakers especially found these laws most severe. The early Bap- 
tists of Virginia were of the common people ; their ministers 
were illiterate ; and for a while they escaped notice. The fifst 
imprisonment of Baptists was in the county of Spottsylvania, 
Va., June 4, 1768. Three Baptists, John Waller, Lewis Craig, 
and James Childs, with others, were arrested for disturbing the 



ILL 

N E W E S 

FROM 

NEW-ENGLAND 

O R 

A Narative of New-EnglanJs 

PERSECUTION. 

Wherinis declared 

That while old England is becoming new, 
Nen^'England is become Old 

Alio £our Propofals to the Honoured Parliatncnt and Coui^iccl of Siacc, 

touching the way to Proprtg^:^ (i^tf GoIfeUfChrtji' ( withfrnali 

chaigc and great iafcty ) both in Old Er^gUnd and New. 

Alfo four conclufioDS touching the faith and Ofdet of the Gofpcl of 
Chrift out ofhislali Will and Tdiamcnt, conoimedand julifled 

By John Clark Phyfiaan of Rode Ifland.in Amenca. 



Revel* 2. 25. HoUfaJtttlllco/Tfi!, 
5, II Bchodi Coma cjHtck/j, 
22. 20. Amen J e'v<ttfJoc^fMfL0r(iJffitA* 



L O N 'D O Ny 

Printed by Hdnry Hids hvmgm ir'lecf'X^rd nc« door to tbeiSi>/« 
ta^(\own, intkycAt 1652, 



126 ROGER WILLIAMS 

peace. (There was no law against preaching.) The opposing 
lawyer in the court-room made this charge : 

May it please your worships, these men are great disturbers of the 
peace; they cannot meet a man on the road, but they ram a text of 
Scripture down his throat. 

Mr. Waller so defended himself and his brethren that their 
enemies were somewhat puzzled to know how to proceed against 
them. They offered to release them on promise to refrain from 
preaching in the county for a year and a day. The defendants 
refused the offer and were sent to prison. Other Baptist minis- 
ters were arrested, and soon thirty were under arrest. The 
prisons became Baptist pulpits, and multitudes gathered around 
them to hear the preachers. Their opponents engaged drum- 
mers to drown the preaching; high enclosures were in some 
cases erected before prison windows, and suffocating materials 
were burned near the prisons. Baptists from the beginning 
were imremitting in their struggle to secure religious liberty. 
They secured the support of Patrick Henry, a member of the 
Established Church, but a firm friend of all who stood for liberty, 
civil and religious. He helped the Baptists to win the complete 
victory. 

The Baptist cause was destined to have a more congenial at- 
mosphere in Pennsylvania when we remember that William 
Penn, its illustrious founder, had an English Baptist father and 
a Dutch mother, undoubtedly of Anabaptist descent. He re- 
ceived his charter in 1681, forty-five years after Roger Williams' 
banishment from ^Massachusetts. Penn possessed broad and 
liberal ideas and was opposed to any church establishment. He 
provided 

that all persons who confess and acknowledge the Almighty and Eternal 
God to be the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the world, . . should in 
no ways be molested, nor compelled to frequent or maintain any re- 
ligious worship. 

Yet only those confessing faith in Jesus Christ could become 
freemen in Penn's domain. The separate Quakers in the colony 
of Pennsylvania were arrested, fined, and imprisoned for dis- 
sent. 




John Clarke Memorial 
First Baptist Church of Newport, R. I. 



S5WS 




^m^-^^ 






Grave of John Clarke 



THE TORCII-DEARERS I29 

The first company of Baptists in this colony came from Rhode 
Island, ^^'illiam Dugan came there in 1684, three years after 
Penn received his charter. He settled at Cold Spring', in Bucks 
County. The first church in Philadelphia was founded by John 
Holmes in 1686. The first meeting--place was at the corner of 
Second and Chestnut Streets. 

Lord Baltimore, the Roman Catholic proprietor of Maryland, 
was far in advance of his Church. He came to the New World 

Txo AND if any County orPirtofthis Frovincc ftijl rcfu/c or negleft to choofe their rf^^^(ftive Ktpn- 

Tliudiof fcntjcivcs isaforcliid, or if chofen, do not meet to (erve in Alfcinbly, thofc who are lo chofen jnd ma 

tht Mrra- (lull have the full Power of an Affeinhly in as imple^lanner as if all the Reprefen:ati%e5 had been chofra 

v".''"' .and met; Prcvidcd, they irenotlefj than two Tkirds of the Whole that ought to meet. 

tnc Inntx *' 

ofafufl AND BE IT FURTHER. ENACTED by the Authotity aforefaid. That no Petfon ulio (hall be 

Moule Jtcrcafttr i Member of the Adcmbly, or Houfeof Reprdcntatives of this Province, lliall be capable to vote 
btr'to'™'e '." ''"' /^"^ Hnufc, or fit there during .-.ny Debate, after their Speaker it chofen, u.itii he Ihili maie «nil 
ic. in ii.V '''''■'^f'^' ''*-^"'^°*'-''8 ^"''"''""^ *0'i '''»>^''2°''of his CJiriftian Belief, t/<^ 
Houfc i.a 

Th^'o'^'- I '^' ^' ^° ^"""''7 P^'""'f'- '"'^ f'!tmr.l;i declare ktfare GOD mi the WnU, Thu I n,U bt faithful ui 
£c/t.uVof' ^"'' '"" '*■'*',''•"•■' " Qa.'" Anne, ^nd J dt folmnly frofef, utd dtclart, 7h*i I d;from my Htrt, 
every Mem- '^^"' '^•"fi '"'' rc>:,Hicr, tu imfiaas and herttu*l,ihti djumaile Dt^iiu *nd Pofii^n, Thtt Pnmct: ex- 
beiifAf. fmmuHUJ.ed cr dtprr^ed t>y iht Poft, or My Amhrnttj ,f ihc Ste ef Kome, mAy 4c dtftfed or nuirOerU 
femtly. tj locir Sutjciis, cr »ny cihtr rsiI'MjtrTjer. 

an AA jIA'D 1 dt dtcltre, 7hal »t forci-^n Prtace, Frrfcn, PrcUtt, SiMear Ptienttt! huh, or tught to hjvi, »>] 

piis'd in Poiser, Jiirifdiclton, SMfriuniy, Prchemincnce or Aii'.haniy eccUft-ijltiAl or fpirituM, nni/$n the Rtnia 
the 1 1 Cto. «/EcjjUrid, or ihe Dominitm thtrtvito belonging. 

An AA _ yiND I A. B. do foUmnh and ftcerrly, in the Preface of COD, f'oftfi. tefltff and dtclari, Thtt I 

prefcribing dt ttlieve thdt in the SicruneK: of the LOKD't Sntfcr there is no: i.ny Jrjr.jitblluniiatien of ihe Elimenii 
ihc foina ef Brcddand Hint imo ihe Body utd Blood of CH^\iT , a; or after the ConJecrMion thereof, iy any Perja 
titio "ff "'*'''/"'*'"■« Sid that the Jnytctiion «r Adorit.on if the l^irgin Mary, tr a^y tther Suimi, aid the Sacrifti 
dUiiy. Ac," 'f '^ Mafii «u «'"7 tre nov> nfid to the Church »/ Rome, ire fuferjlitioMt and IdoluroMt. 

-4.VD / do ftlemnly, in the Prefence of GOD, p'of-fi, lefiify Hid decide, Ihtt I do make ihii Dedi , 
ration ar.d every Pari thereof, in the plain aid ordinar) Seiife of the IVordi read unto w%e, as they are cim- 
mor.ly iinierfloti by En^lifh Proteftints, niihoui any £v~Jion,£rjmvocjtt.n or mental Refervaiitn rchaiftr.ir 
and rtithoMt any ' Diffcnfation already granted me for this Pierftle by the Pcft, or any other Amhoniy tr Per- 
fen nhutfotver, »r miihoul any Htfe'of any fnch Diipenfuinn frtmany Perfinor Authontyrohatfof.er, ormik- 
out thin\i>ig I am or may bt actjHitted before GOD, or Man, or abfolved of this Declirjtion, or any Tet 
thereof, although the Pope, or any other Perfon or Perfons, or Porter nha/ftevtr, fimid difptnft nilh t 
ananll the fame, ir declare that it nas null or void from the Begtnmr.g. 

ASD 1 A. D. profefs Faith in COD the Father, and in JESUS CHRIST, his eternal Sen, the tne 
COD. and im ibt HOLY SPIKIT, (me GOD, blejfed for evermore: and do aeksoroUdge the Hoi; 
Scripture* of the 0\A andticn-Tt^lznKat., to begiven by dsvine Jnfftratum, 

The Law in William Penn's Colony. 
No Absolute Soul-liberty in Pennsylveinia in Those Days. 

to secure religious liberty for himself and his friends. The Alary- 
land Act of Toleration, issued in 1649, provided that 

Blasphemy against God, and a denial of the Trinity should be punished 
with death and confiscation of lands and goods, and blasphemy against 
the Virgin Mary should first be punished by a fine of five pounds, and 
if persisted in, by a forfeiture of all possessions and banishment from 
the colour. 



_- OS 

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cow. 2;:q b E c s w 
J^ ^^ -5 •- 1£^ ^ tT"^ 









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^-*-' W -T* ^ 2 ■ '-^ 3_rii c 2 S.o^' .^ 5i o£ § § 

^-' :- ^ 2 eu Cu u) -> o- « r- U .= a.« 



THE TORCH-REARERS I3I 

The Baptist church at Chestnut Ridg^e was formed in 1742 by 
Henry Sator, a layman of the General Baptist order, who had 
recently come from England. He invited Baptist ministers to 
preach in his house. They soon gathered a congregation ; prose- 
lytes were gained, and a church organized. This church appealed 



91 















r ^ 



*M. Caj/ita/l Lawn. 
I 
u'»i. \:. i'r!. I^ "".V iiwin iiftir k-j^ull convi 'tioii nhall hrivt- or woT'»h\\> 
Kx ■■!■:■ i<). any otlii-r g<Kl, l)iit llic lonl '^o*\, Ijc hlinll In- put to drnth. 

i. 
K« 22. i«^ If liny man or wocman bo a witch, (that in luith or con- 
\m 1*8. JO. i*nltiih with a familiar spirit,) Tht-y ^hall Fx; put to lU-ath. 

3. 
If any man xhall iJIaKphcmu the name of K'xI. '*••■ father, 
Ix'T.si.lj.K-. Sonne or llolie ^host, with iliriK-t, exprenne. pre-*iiinpiiioiH 
or hi^h handed "blanphemie, or whall e'ursc «j<m1 in the like 
manner, he shall U- put to death. 



Puritan-Religious-Liberty 



Facsimile of original laws. From " Body of Liberties." First legal code for the 
government of the Bay Colony. Drawn up by Rev. Nathaniel W'ard, Lawyer-divine 
of Ipswich. 

to the governor and was taken under the protection of the tolera- 
tion laws. 

The Final \*ictorv in the Long Struggle 

Two Baptist organizations in close sympathy with each other 
contributed much toward the final victory. They made appeals 
to their immediate constituency and also to the larger following 
of all Baptists and other lovers of religious liberty. These were 
the Warren Association in Xew England, and the General Com- 



132 ROGER WILLIAMS 

mittee in \'irginia. Each had a committee of grievances. The 
Baptists were nobly assisted by Presbyterians and Quakers in 
the final stages of the great conflict. Isaac Backus wrote his 
immortal work on '' A History of New England, with Especial 
Reference to the Baptists." He drafted appeals for the Asso- 
ciation and for the committee on grievances to the General As- 
sembly, published addresses on religious liberty, and inserted 
advertisements in leading papers. He believed that partial his- 
tory and false statements regarding Baptist history and doc- 
trines should be removed by scattering impartial and true knowl- 
edge. He was a Baptist giant and had his share in forming 
sentiment, which eventually made religious intoleration impossible 
in America. 

Isaac Backus, with President Manning, of Brown University, 
then Rhode Island College, went to Philadelphia and with Quak- 
ers and others appealed to John Adams and other Massachusetts 
delegates in Carpenter Hall, Philadelphia. These advocates of 
soul-liberty took the position that to pay taxes to support a 
church clergy' in which they did not believe was as much a 
wrong as to pay taxes for a government in which they had no 
representation. It was not the paltry tax of fourpence a man 
that the colonists in Llassachusetts rebelled against. It was 
the principle that was back of paying the pence which they 
opposed. They were greatly amazed wdien John Adams told 
them that their own colony, Massachusetts, had " the most mild 
and equitable establishment of religion that was known in the 
world." 

The Mrginia Baptists, through their General Convention, or- 
ganized in 1784, united the efforts of the Baptists there and in 
New England for the final phases of the war against religious 
tyranny. For four years they had worked for liberty in their 
State laws and had won a complete victory. Then, in 1788. they 
turned to the national issue. The Federal Constitution had pro- 
vided in Article VI, " No religious Test shall ever be required 
as a qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United 
States." This did not satisfy the Baptists, because religious 
tests might be imposed for other purposes than those specified. 
In a noble letter, drafted by Johi: Leland, a Baptist minister, 
they appealed to Washington. They paid a high compliment to 




? hH 




THE TORCH-BEARERS 1 35 

his achievements and then stated their grievance, closing with 
these words : 

If religious liberty is rather insecure in the Constitution the adminis- 
tration will certainly prevent all oppression, for a Washington will 
preside. Should the horrid evils that have been so pestiferous in Asia 
and Europe, faction, ambition, war, perfidy, fraud, and persecution for 
conscience sake, ever approach the borders of our happy nation, may the 
name and administration of our beloved President, like the radiant 
source of day, scatter all the dark clouds from the American hemisphere. 

\\'ashington repHed that his ideals were the same, assuring them 
of this, in the following words : 

No one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers 
against the horrors of spiritual t>'ranny and every species of religious 
persecution. 

He complimented the Baptists and said that they 

have been, throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously, the 
firm friends to civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious 
revolution. 

His assurance was not empty words. In a short time James 
Madison, with the President's approval, submitted certain amend- 
ments. Article \l was superseded by the First Amendment to 
the Constitution, which specified : 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 

prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging freedom of speech, or 

of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

Thus the long fight was won in America, and now people gen- 
erally appreciate the importance of the victory gained. Rhode 
Island may have hesitated to accept the imperfect Constitution, 
v^ith its lack of assurance for complete religious liberty.' In this 
connection we should not forget that Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut were the last to ratifv the First Amendment. 



VII 



THE WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE OF 
ROGER WILLIAMS' IDEAL 



" The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be 
planted upon trusted foundations of political liberty." — President jnison's 
War Message to Congress, 1917. 

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furld 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. 
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe. 
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. 

— Alfred Tennyson. 

A day will come when bullets and bombs shall be replaced by ballots, 
by the universal suffrages of the people, by the sacred arbitrament of a 
great Sovereign Senate. . . A day will come when we shall face those 
two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States 
of Europe, in face of each other, extending hand to hand over the ocean, 
exchanging their products, their commerce, their industry, their art, their 
genius clearing the earth, colonizing deserts, and ameliorating creation 
under the eye of the Creator. To you, I appeal, French, English, Ger- 
mans, Russians, Slavs, Europeans, Americans, what have we to do to 
hasten the coming of the great day? Love one axother. — I'ictur Hugo. 

I asked him (Premier Lloyd George) what message he would send to 
American Baptists. Quick as a flash, he turned and said : " Tell them 
that it is Baptist principles that we are fighting for in this great struggle. 
All that Baptists count dear is at stake in this issue." — Lloyd George to 
George Coleman, President, Northern Baptist Convention. From the 
hitter's speech at Atlantic City, N. J., May, 191S. 



THE WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE OF 
ROGER WILLIAMS' IDEAL 



ROGER WILLIAMS, as a man of vision, was experiment- 
ing with a new idealism. His ideas, now generally accepted, 
have made absolute relig'ious liberty, with its complete 
separation of Church and State, an idea almost synonymous with 
the name of the United States of America. That lonely man, in 
the smallest of the colonies, set the pace for the other twelve 
original commonwealths and established a national pattern for the 
forty-eight States in the present Union. Our cup of blessing has 
overflowed, and today the whole world is awaking to the bless- 
ings in store for them if they partake of the same privileges. 

" Mankind has pursued liberty over mountain and across val- 
ley," writes Pres. E. Y. Mullins, 

by land and by sea, through fire and through flood, suice the first man 
caught a glimpse of liberty's white robes leading on to victory. The love 
of victor}- is now a volcanic fire which breaks out into revolution and 
consumes and destroys the ancient fabrics of government, and now it is 
a tide of life which rolls across the face of nations, causing them to burst 
into the beauty and fragrance of a new springtime. The spirit of liberty 
in its quest for the goal of its desire has sounded all the notes in the 
gamut of human experience, from the minor notes of abject despair to 
the ringing paean of victory over every foe. 

The Baptist churches of America, the torch-bearers of re- 
ligious or soul-liberty, have grown from the one church which 
Williams founded in Providence into a mighty host. From twelve 
members in one church organization in 1639 that denomination 
has grown in America until today, according to the latest govern- 
ment statistics, it has the largest membership of any Protestant 
denomination in America, 7,236,650. Its one preacher has be- 
come a great host of 39.734, serving 53,133 churches. Instead 
of one college with one student in 1764, it now has 463 schools 
in America, with 68,513 students. Instead of one lone missionary 

139 



140 - ROGER WILLIAMS 

to the Indians, it now has a large army of missionaries in the 
home and foreign fields. 

Doctor Masters, Secretary of Publicity of the Home Mission 
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, in tabulating the 
figures from the preliminary statistics furnished by the United 
States Census Department, calls our attention to the fact that 
the approximate Baptist population of America, including mem- 
bers and other adherents, is twenty-two millions. The Baptists are 
thus in the lead of every denomination, Catholic or Protestant, in 
America ; our net gain for ten years is the greatest of all de- 
nominations, 28 per cent, compared with 10.8 per cent of the 
Roman Catholics. He gives the comparative strength of Roman- 
ists and evangelicals in America as eighty million evangelicals to 
15,700,000 Roman Catholics. 

Before the days of the great war, Pres. E. Y. Mullins, with 
prophetic vision wrote : 

We are approaching the Baptist age of the world, because we are 
approaching the age of the triumph of democracy. Like a vine growing 
in the darkness of some deep cavern, and slowly stretching itself toward 
the dim light shining in through the distant mouth of the cavern, so 
has humanity slowly crept on toward freedom. The mighty hordes of 
the Asiatic and European world, weary and sad yet courageous and reso- 
lute, are hastening forward with unresting feet toward the gates of 
destiny. Toward those gates these hundreds of years the Baptists have 
been pointing, and today in the foremost files of time they lead the way. 
As humanity enters they will shout with the full knowledge that God 
in Christ has led all the way. . . And the goal of human progress shall 
be realized in an eternal societ>' wherein absolute democracy is joined 
to absolute monarchy, God the Father being the monarch, and his people 
a vast family of free children. 

True political liberty is the child of religious liberty. It must 
look to freedom of the soul as a child does to its mother for birth, 
protection, and provision. Political anarchy is the usual result 
of a people seeking full liberty by ignoring or neglecting the sup- 
port which religion brings to man's moral nature. It is a long 
road to political liberty, but it is a road which has run parallel 
with religious liberty. It is interesting to note the Americaniza- 
tion of the world. There were few democracies when our Re- 
public was born. Our victory over tyranny was an inspiration to 
oppressed peoples. The French followed shortly afterward. 



WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE I4I 

Wherever Napoleon went, he held aloft the banner of tquality 
and liberty. He granted the latter under a form of government 
by which he became emperor. After almost a century, France 
gained both. Napoleon's exile to St. Helena did not usher in 
a restoration of the older European order. National sovereignty 
and constitutional government were the constituent parts of a 
liberty the people would not be denied in almost all the countries 
of Europe. In Italy, Charles Albert, King of Savoy, Sardinia, 
and Piedmont, gave his people a constitutional form of govern- 
ment. Though opposed by the papal States and Austria, this 
movement grew until, under King Emmanuel, Cavour, and Gari- 
baldi, all Italy was united and free. Denmark followed in 1849, 
Greece in 1866, and Spain the following year. The Christians of 
the Balkan Peninsula revolted from the Turks in 1875. and were 
recognized a power by the greater powers and were given a 
constitutional government. In 1910 Portugal banished royalty 
and welcomed democracy. Russia, in 1917, threw off the shackles 
of autocracy for those of anarchy. \\'hen she awakes from her 
delirium she will doubtless see the true light and follow it. 

The Americanization of Asia is moving- rapidly forward. In 
1852 Commodore Perry — by a strange providence from Rhode 
Island — forced open the door into Japan. The shoguns, masters 
for centuries, lost their power. Then the ]\Iikado for twenty 
years took their autocratic powers to himself but was compelled 
after that to give his people a liberal constitutional form of gov- 
ernment. The Chinese nation, hoary with age, entered the list 
of democracies in 191 1, becoming the United States of China. 
The Shah of Persia, after a broken promise which brought on a 
revolution, gave his people, in 1906, a constitutional form of 
government. The Young Turks in 1909, after compelling Abdul 
Hamid II to abdicate, placed Mohammed V on the throne as his 
successor. Prior to the Great War they had what is at least 
an approach to the newer constitutional ideals of the modern 
world. 

The lands to the south of us have their struggle toward the 
same desired goal. The Republic of Mexico needs a religious 
and educational preparation which will largely solve, among that 
unassimilated conglomeration of Indians, negroes, and mestizos, 
the problem of stable government. Let the religious leaders of 

L 



142 ROGER WILLIAMS 

Mexico, who have tried for centuries with their rehg-ions auto- 
cratic systems, give way for a single generation to the evan- 
geHcal churches with their democratic ideaHsms and the unchained 
Bible, and then revolutions and immorality will fade away, and 
the land, so desolated in recent years, will blossom like the rose. 

When Napoleon defeated the monarchs of Europe and their 
system, he shook the confidence of the people of Central and 
South America in their absent monarchs across the seas. South 
American nations followed one by one into the class of democ- 
racies. Central American States also broke away from their 
European masters. These lands need the open Bible of the evan- 
gelical Christian churches more than our battleships and marines. 
When superstition is banished by the light which radiates from 
the Bible, then the republics to the south of us will vie with 
us in advancement and prosperity. 

Absolute monarchy is doomed in Europe and throughout the 
world. The sword unsheathed by America must not rest in its 
scabbard until democracy is safe in the world and the world is 
made safe for democracy. Belgium outraged, France desecrated, 
Great Britain drained, Russia bleeding slowly to death, and all 
Europe a shambles, may find in the ideals of Roger Williams 
healing for their wounds and health for the coming years. 

Due honor should be given to every colony builder of the New 
World. Great were their suffering and sacrifices. 

All praise to others of the vanguard then, 
To Spain, to France, to Baltimore and Penn. 
To Jesuit, Quaker, Puritan, and Priest, 
Their toils be crowned, their honors be increased. 

Give praise to others early come or late, 
For love and labor on our ship of state. 

By faith the Pilgrims left old England, and sojourned in Hol- 
land as in a strange country. By faith they trusted their all to 
God and the Mayflower. By faith they endured the hardships 
of that first winter and founded their colony in which they sought 
to honor God according to the truth as they saw it. All honor 
to the faith of our Pilgrim Fathers. 

In hope the Puritans left their native land, seeking not a sepa- 
ration from the mother Church but rather purification of the 



WORLD-WIDE INFLUEXCE 



143 



Established Order. In hope they founded Salem and Boston and 
other towns about the Massachusetts Bay. In hope they laid 
strong the foundations which afterward led to the victories of 
Lexington and Bunker Hill. All honor to the Puritan builders 
of a great commonwealth, the New America. 

Through charity Roger Williams fled into the depths of snowy 
forests and crossed frozen streams, to form among savage tribes 
a new colony where no man would be denied political privileges 
because of religious belief. Through charity he forgave those 
who exiled him and at the risk of his own life saved Puritan 
and Pilgrim from an impending Indian massacre. Through 
charity he shared his purchased possessions gratuitously with 
others. Through charity he formed the immortal compact bind- 
ing men together "only in civil things." Through charity he 
sacrificed his humble patrimony, his home at Salem, and^ the 
earnings of his lifetime to safeguard and protect the colony he 
had founded for the joys of others. Through charity he' ex- 
tended for the first time in our national history a loving wel- 
come to men of all beliefs into the new fraternity of humanliearts 
founded for human helpfulness. 

Roger Williams possessed the faith of the Pilgrim and the 
hope of the Puritan. Faith and hope getteth, but charity giveth. 
Roger Williams possessed the charity of Christ. He followed 
in the footsteps of his IMaster along a pathway of pain. Like the 
Man of Galilee, in the olive orchard and vine-clad garden, and on 
the bleak skull-shaped hill without the walls of Jerusalem, his 
humble servant, the man of Providence, had his Gethsemane' and 
Golgotha in the frozen forests and on the snow-clad hills under 
the wintry skies of New England. 

Aye, call It holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod, 
They left unstained what there they found. 

Freedom to worship God. 

And now in these United States of America, there abideth 
the faith of the Pilgrim, the hope of the Puritan, and the charity 
of Roger Williams ; but the greatest of these is charity. 



STUDY OUTLINE OF THE LIFE AND 
TIMES OF ROGER WILLIAMS 

I 

Roger Williams a.xd His Times 

1. Rise and Dczrlot'iuoit of E)iglish Piiritaiiism: Reformation 
in England, from Wyclif to Henry \'in. Reformation under 
Henry VHI, Edward \'I, and Elizabeth. Influence of the Marian 
exiles. Rise of English Puritanism. Influence and mission of 
Thomas Cartwright and Robert Browne. Growth of Presby- 
terianism and independency. Origin of British Baptists (in Wales 
and England). 

2. Contemporaneous Colonial Settlements: The Plymouth Pil- 
grims. The Dorchester Adventurers. Xaumkeag settlers. Endi- 
cott Company at Salem. A\'inthrop Company at Boston. Con- 
necticut settlers. Early Dutch and Virginia settlements. (Study 
idealism, origin, vitality of each.) 

3. Indian Predecessors of Roger Ullliams and Puritans: Tribal 
settlements, their ideas, customs, and moral status. Ideas of soul- 
liberty among the Indians. Priority of Williams' Indian mission- 
ary work. Labors of Eliot and others. 

II 
Roger Williams, His Life and Achievements 

1. Life Prior to Exile from England, 1602-162Q: His birth and 
education. Religious ferment in England. His love affairs, mar- 
riage, and exile. 

2. In Neiv England Prior to Settlement in Providence, 162Q- 
16^6: Experiences in Boston, Salem, Plymouth, the wilderness, 
and Seekonk. 

3. Providence Plantations Prior to First Charter, 16^6-1644: 
Arrival. Reception by Indians. First deeds to property. Bap- 

145 



146 ROGER WILLIAMS 

tism. Early government. Indian troubles. Neighbors at Paw- 
tuxet, Warwick, Portsmouth, and Blackstone. Williams' first 
visit to England. First charter. Indian trading-post near Wick- 
ford. His first writings. 

4. Providence under the First Charter, 1644-166J: Grow^th of 
colony. Indian difficulties. Coddington's claims. Opposition 
from the United Colonies. Williams' second visit to England. 
His writings. Work of his colaborer, John Clarke, of Newport, in 
securing second charter. 

5. Grozvth, Destruction, and Rehnilding of Providence, i66j- 
i6j6: General pre-Indian War prosperity. The Quakers. The 
debate and Williams' writings. Indian War with King Philip. 
Reconstruction. 

6. Closing Days and Death of Roger Willianis: Official posi- 
tion. Retirement and death. Burial. Later removal of dust. 

7. Providence after the Death of its Founder: Commercially, 
religiously, educationally, and politically. Its glorious share in the 
Revolutionary War. Its glory among the brotherhood of States. 
Growth of its ideal throughout the world. 

Ill 

The Evolution of the Roger Williams Ideal of Soul-liberty 

1. Prior to Days of JVilliams: The pioneers, the predecessors 
of Williams, and the continuity of the struggle for soul-liberty 
among the early Christians. The work of the Anabaptists or Bap- 
tists in the Dark Ages in northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany, 
Holland, and England and Wales. Study their published confes- 
sions on the subject of soul-liberty. 

2. Contemporaries of Roger Williams: The General and Par- 
ticular Baptists of England. A consideration of the ideals of tol- 
eration, liberty of conscience, and absolute soul-liberty in the set- 
tlements of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, Connecticut ; and the Indian's position also. Compare all 
these with the peculiar position of Roger Williams. 

3. Successors of Roger Williams: The American Baptists. 
Study especially the Warren Baptist Association with its com- 
mittee on grievances. Study the work of the Philadelphia Bap- 



STUDY OUTLINE 147 

tist Convention. Study also the work of the Baptists in other 
States. Cooperation of Quakers, Presbyterians, and others. 

IV 

The World-wide Influence of Roger Williams' Ideal 

Pohtical democracy, a fruit of rehgious hberty. The onward 
march of democracy in America, Europe, Asia, and South Amer- 
ica. The world war and the world-wide struggle for democracy. 
Present status of the world as to religious liberty and as to polit- 
ical democracy. (Take a map and indicate the same.) 



A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Biographies: 

Backus, "History of New England." (First history in which W'ilhams' 

life-story is told at length.) 
Knowles, " Memoir of Roger Williams." 
Gammell, " Life of Roger Williams." 
Elton, " Life of Roger Williams." 

Straus, " Roger Williams, Pioneer of Religious Libert}'." 
Carpenter, " Roger Williams, A Political Pioneer." 
Hall, " Roger Williams." 

Original Documents: 

" Complete Writings of Roger Williams," Xarragansett Club Publica- 
tions. 
Bradford, " The Bradford History." 
Winthrop, " History of the Puritans." 
Chapin, "Documentary History of Rhode Island." 
Early Colonial Records. 

Early Records of the Town of Providence. Vols. HI, lY, \\ VHL 
Cotton, " Magnalia." 

General Histories: 

Arnold, " History of Rhode Island." 

Staples, " Annals of Providence." 

Greene, " Providence Plantations for 250 Years." 

Richman, " Rhode Island, Its Making and its Meaning." 

Evolution of Soul-lihcriy: 

King, " Religious Liberty." 

Ivime)^, " History of English Baptists." 

General Baptist Church Histories, by Benedict, Armitage, Newman, 

Cathcart, Yedder, etc. 
Mullins, " Axioms of Religion." 

149 



^50 ROGER WILLIAMS 

Historic S()ots: 

Guild, " Footprints of Roger Williams." 
Hopkins, " The Home Lots of the Early Settlers." 

State of Rhode Island, "Report of Committee on Marking of Historic 
Sites in Rhode Island." 

Rider, "Lands of RJiode Island as They Were Known to Canonicus." 
Fiction: 

Butterworth, " In the Days of Massasoit." 

Hall, " The Golden Arrow." 

Durfcc, the epic poem, " What Cheer." 

Other Books and Pamphlets: 

H. M. King, " Baptism of Roger Williams," " Summer Visit of Three 
Rhode Islanders," "The Mother Church," "The True Roger Wil- 
liams," "Life of John Miles," "Historical Catalog of First Baptist 
Church." 

Kimball, " Providence in Colonial Times." 

Dexter, "As to Roger Williams' Banishment." 

Burrage, "Why W^as Roger Williams Banished?" 

Merriman, " Pilgrim, Puritan, and Roger Williams." 

Dorr, "The Planting and Growth of Providence." 

Burgess, " Reconciliation of Government with Liberty." 

Eaton, " Roger Williams, the Founder of Providence." 

Durfee, " Complete Works of Job Durfee." 

Backus Historical Societ}-, " Elements in Baptist Development." 

Notable Addresses: 
Z. Allan, " Memorial of Roger Williams." 

W. H. P. Faunce, " Roger Williams and His Doctrine of Soul Liberty." 
Mowry, " Concerning Roger Williams." 
Durfee, " Oration on 250th Anniversary." 
Rabbi A. Simon, " Thanksgiving Address on Roger Williams." 
Diman, "Address at Unveiling of Statue of Roger Williams at Roger 
Williams Park." 

Proceedings in Congress on Receiving the Roger Williams Statue. 



AN ITINERARY FOR A HISTORIC 
PILGRIMAGE 



Places of Interest Outside of Rhode Island 

In England: Charterhouse School. Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

In America: Salem: Site of First Meeting House. The original old 
First Church. The Original Roger Williams House (The Witch House). 

Plymouth: Coles Hill. The Burial Hill. Harbor. The Meresteads. 

Boston and Vicinity: Original Bradford History in State House. Site of 
Meeting House where trial took place (Dunster and Meeting Streets, 
Cambridge). Site of old First Church. 

New York City : Roger Williams' Watch, in Fraunce's Tavern. 

II 

Places of Interest in Rhode Island 

In Providence: Study a map of the original Home Lots in relation 
to the present streets of Providence. (Hopkins, "Home Lots," is good.) 

Capitol Building: The Original Charter from Charles II. The Original 
Portsmouth Compact in Secretary of State's Office. 

Court House : Grant's picture of Landing of Williams. 

City Hall : Original Deeds from the Indians. Williams' Letter of trans- 
ference. Original Compact of Providence Settlers. 

Civic Center: Symbolical Statuary on Post Office Building. Civic 
Center is probably the site of Williams' baptism. 

The Rhode Island Historical Society's Building: The Apple Tree Roots 
from Grave of Williams, his Compass, etc. 

John Hay Library: Copy of Roger Williams' Indian Bible. 

John Carter Brown Library : Original Copies of Williams' books and 
letters. 

Brown University. 

Site of Town Meetings at Entrance to Tunnel. 

First Baptist Church: The Bell. Specimen from What Cheer Rock 
in Lobby. Pictures of Pastors, etc. 

Pardon Tillinghast's Grave, Benefit Street near Transit. 



^5- ROGF.R WILLIAMS 

What Cheer Rock, Roger and Williams Streets, 
hafcllcd/''""' ^°""' ^^^"' ^''""' ""^ ^'''"''''' "'"•'^'''^ G^^P^^ P'"t was 

Old State House, where First Declaration of Independence was signed. 
Site of Spring, 244 North Main Street. 

Site of Roger W'illiams House, Xorth Main and Alamo Streets. 
Grave of Roger Williams, rear of Stable, 108 Benefit Street 

Chad Brovvn ""'''^ " *^^'""'"^ ""^ ^^"^'""^- ^^^^"'«'-'^' *« 

Stfeet'atl ,!^"'7 ^^"-'-^^-^ ^l^^ Monument to Admiral Hopkins, Charles 
Street and branch Avenue. The Home of Admiral Hopkins on Admiral 

.nHTr.^)'"^'"!,-^'''''^ ^'"'"' °^ ^^ '"^^'"-'^- '^^"^^""^ ^vith Indian Relics 
and Model of Indian Village. 'vencs 

Out from Providence: Fort Independence Site at Field's Point Gaspee 

sh ::u:r"sit ""rvv -n^"^^': .''^^""^"^- ^^-^ °^ ^-^-i "011,^; 

Qua n oHns "^^^^"""^^ Trading-post, Wickford. Indian Soapston^ 
guarrj, Johnston. Barrington, R. I. Pierce's Fight, Central Falls 

6-j/r. fl/ Ncz^port: Town of Portsmouth on Island. Site of Governor 
Bui is House. I.rst Baptist Church. Graves of Clarke and of Codd^nZ 

Old Houses: Gilbert Stuart's House, North Kingston. Nathanael Greene's 
House^ Cumberland. Reynolds' House (Headquarters of Lafaye e) B iV 






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